Monday, October 20, 2008

Smells like a loser

Sharks circling:
"One piece of press bias is they don't like losers," says CBS correspondent Jeff Greenfield. "When the whiff of defeat surrounds a campaign, the press picks up on it the way sharks smell blood in the water, and then it becomes a feedback loop."
I noticed this way back in 1996, even before I became politically active. I didn't like Bob Dole, but I thought the media coverage of his campaign was terrible. I think it was precisely for the reason Greenfield suggests: the press doesn't like losers. But what isn't asked is why they don't like losers. I think it has something to do with the journalists resenting having to spend time on a campaign that they have already concluded is over. They want to move on to the new hotness and a losing candidate is a moldy piece of bread that can't be "legitimately" thrown out until after election day.

Even though this mentality is benefiting us today, Democrats shouldn't be happy about it. There are plenty of times it has bitten us.

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