Last night Anderson Cooper of CNN ran promotions telling America he was going to do a show on Bachmann at ten p.m.
I was in a Mexican restaurant halfway through a burrito when I looked up and saw that announcement on the big screen plasma TV that hung over the cantina bar. And when I saw you know I choked and did a habanero spit-take, paid the tab, and "adios'd" out of there, burning rubber to get home.
Because this wasn't going to be a Bachmann interview. It was to be a Bachmann profile, and that makes all the difference in the world. There's no shortage of face time interviews with MB; she gives them out in Bachmann friendly forums all the time. Depending on what happened the week before, she does either "the nice Michele" or "the nuts Michele."
This means you can get dozens of videos showing her addressing conservative crowds or being interviewed by conservative hosts. But there is a dearth (meaning "not much") of broadcast profiles about this nut and her hateful antics. So a serious news piece about Bachmann is news in and of itself. And it was a long shot, but who knows--this profile might even be the one to inform viewers that Bachmann is a puppet candidate of the national evangelical right.
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Well, there I was in pajamas and bathrobe with the popcorn when the piece came on, and surprise--it was kind of disappointing. They did get to the fact that Bachmann is a "Christian" politician (laying claim to the brand.) They did notice that Bachmann resists interviews with press that might possibly ask her embarrassing questions about her past position statements.
And there were other highlights in this single segment report. But the guy in the field mindlessly repeated the story about Bachmann "raising" twenty three foster children in addition to her five biological children.
She did not "raise" those foster children; because "raising children" denotes caring for children from childhood to independent adulthood. The foster children that the Bachmanns took in were pregnant teen mothers. The largest numbert that ever stayed with the Bachmanns at the same time was four. It is accurate to say the Bachmanns took in these unwed mothers, it is deceitful to allow the press to report (as she always has) that she "raised" them.
So that got by Anderson Cooper and into the national meme again; sloppy research by the guy who wrote the copy for the teleprompters.
An up spot: They note in passing that Bachmann claims that she was called to run by God and prides herself on being a Christian. "A born again Christian", according to Cooper's reporter--I never heard her claim that she was "born again," but I don't claim to have heard everything she ever told anyone. If she is claiming to be "born again," that's a whole new area there--it raises the bar for her on her own conduct. People who are intent on using evangelical belief for political career are very careful about using the phrase "born again" to describe themselves. (cf. George W. Bush.)
Because politics often involves lying. And Christian political figures who claim to be born again but are regularly caught lying to the public (cf. Bachmann) can alienate evangelicals of sincere faith.
Down spot: she's off the hook there, because Cooper's reporter said Bachmann was "born again," Bachmann did not herself claim "born again" status.
Another down spot: Bachmann was shown rushing from place to place to be interviewed, surrounded by people whizzing her through the state fair. She seemed intent on looking too busy to talk to CNN. Who did she want to talk to? A local evangelical radio station. (CNN filmed her in the booth talking to the evangelical radio guys, instead of talking to CNN.)
Then they showed her whizzing across the fairgrounds to another local radio station... a secular conservative radio station--once again dumping CNN to get to a Bachmann friendly forum. They filmed her going into that radio booth, too.
Why is this a down spot? Because Anderson Cooper, his producer, and the reporter doing the remote broadcast did not know that both of the radio stations that Bachmann chose in preference to CNN: were owned by the Salem Network, a national broadcast chain of mostly evangelical radio stations devoted to presenting conservative viewpoints around the country. The Salem Network owns about 2000 radio stations (CORRECTION: I got the number "2000" from a Washington Post story referencing Salem. In fact, Salem Communications and the Salem Radio Network have about one hundred stations and claim 2000 "affiliates." Thank you, alert commenter who sent that in.) Salem's directors are members and in some case past leaders of the Council for National Policy: an organization of evangelical conservatives who introduce wingers like Bachmann into American government.
That's too bad, that Cooper didn't know that or care to find out. There's a story there that's changing the fundamental nature of the Republican Party. Which leads to the next down spot: four commentators were invited by satellite to comment on the piece--and none of them said anything remotely memorable. None discussed the fact of Bachmann's protege status within the national evangelical political machine. (I simply cannot believe that David Gergen knows nothing of this development in modern Republican politics; I cannot believe that he doesn't know "who Michele really works for.")
Bright spot: incredibly, it was Jason Lewis--our local Rush Limbaugh knockoff who provided the bright spot. For the first time in his life, he said something "true and valuable." After interviewing Bachmann (he's a Bachmann friendly forum, on her campaign's "approved media" list), Lewis noted that thing are different now. He told CNN that there are no gatekeepers now, no Walter Cronkite and New York Times to decide what the people will hear. Everything will get heard, said Lewis.
This remark provided the four commentators with chin-wagging material for about thirty seconds, once the piece had been aired. It seem to puzzle Cooper, probably because the remark (if true) would diminish the significance of the traditional news outlets that he represents.
But it doesn't puzzle you, if you read the last piece I did here about Bachmann. Lewis was making an oblique reference to a fact of contemporary American politics: conservatives now have their own national media, with its own standards for "what constitutes news reporting," and around a third of the American electorate are accepting conservative standards for news reporting in place of traditional news standards. In short, conservative Americans are accepting the organized propaganda in preference to the traditional professional preference for objective reporting.
And conservative evangelical media outlets have national audiences that prefer to accept their propaganda, in preference to reporting from the traditional media. As Lewis said: on this side of the political equation--there are no gatekeepers. He might as well have added: on this side of the political equation, there is no demand for factual reporting. The only demand of this audience, is broadcasting that confirms them in their conservative worldview.
And that's why Bachmann won't talk to Anderson Cooper's guys. She doesn't have to, to win. Her side has its own media; they own stations that broadcast conservatism in the name of Jesus Christ and in the name of Ronald Reagan. They will not ask her about the veracity of her claims. With local and national media like that, plus television ads and piles of money from evangelicals and conservatives around the country--the traditional media doesn't matter, except as a venue where she might possibly make a false step.
So she can avoid the professional press with impunity. F**k 'em; they're basically irrelevant," says Bachmann and scurries off toe the next Bachmann friendly broadcast outlet.
They don't have to be irrelevant; they could "rip the lid off the whole 'broadcasting lies daily' scam, etc." but it's clear after decades of this that the traditional media doesn't have the stomach to do that. (They might get fired; they work for big corporations.)
Bachmann did finally agree to answer just two questions on camera for Anderson Cooper's reporter in Minnesota. Just two; the questions weren't memorable and the answers weren't memorable. So Anderson Cooper flew this guy all the way out to St. Paul not to hit a home run.
But there were two bright spots. One was a guy an ordinary citizen out with his family, walking by the Bachmann entourage, and he starts yelling out stuff like "she's NUTS!" The Anderson Cooper people did feature that footage at the end of the report, probably because they were pissed that she only gave them two questions after giving the rest of the day to conservative media.
Too bad they didn't stop to interview that guy; I bet he would have talked to them and told them why he thought Michele was a nut and a liar. Maybe they did interview him; but if they did they cut him out of the final piece.
The other bright spot was Tarryl Clark, Bachmann's Dem opponent. Clark did want to talk to CNN; they showed her walking side by side with Cooper's reporter, telling the score but what she was saying was blotted out by voiceover narration. In the end, she allowed to deliver about a soundbyte's worth of message to the viewers at home.
And this is how it goes: the liberal politician who will talk to the traditional media is allowed a soundbyte. The conservative politician who won't talk to the traditional media? They spend almost the entire piece chasing her around and film her talking to the conservative media. And the traditional media won't condemn her for doing that, or report the reasons why she's shutting out traditional media.
And CNN's telling me I'm missing something if I don't watch this show?
ACTION LINK: Tarryl Clark has to win this contest...not just because she's qualified, not just because she's the sane one in the race--she's got to win it because if Bachmann comes back into a new Congress: you'll be sorrrry...
http://tarrylclark.com