Mainstream Media Coverage of the Presidential Campaign is Terrible

For example, an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle reads, "Romney Gets Welfare Politics Right as Attack Ad Misses on Facts." Yeah, I'm not sure what that means, either. If you read the editorial you'll see it means that Romney's recent welfare attack ad is misleading some voters with lies -- so why isn't that the headline? Why do you have to read the long-winded editorial halfway through to see what it's getting at?

More to the point, does the Chronicle think that viewers who are apt to be mislead by ads like this one really read editorials down further than the headlines? Do they care about informing the public? Or do they see their role as shaking their heads sagely in the wings as Rome burns, to mix metaphors? There really are a very great many thoroughly useless people in positions of high prestige and power. It'd be nice if we lived in a meritocracy. We're not very close to that yet, if you ask me.

Is the mainstream media really going to remain "objective" in the "controversy" between Harry Reid and Mitt Romney over Romney's hidden tax returns, or, worse, take Romney's side, calling Reid's behavior inexcusable ten times for every time they point out how many more returns than Romney every Republican and Democratic nominee for President has released, going back decades? Just about every single day Romney either flat-out lies -- that we know about. How many more lies would we know about if Romney weren't so hyper-secretive? -- or contradicts something he said earlier. Sometimes earlier the same day. So why does the mainstream media insist on presenting stories suggesting that Romney and Obama and their campaigns are about equally dirty?

Presumably, reporters who spend ALL DAY EVERY DAY studying a subject FOR A LIVING know more about that subject than the average Schmoe. But what good is that knowledge if they deliberately hide it in the name of some purely imaginary "objectivity," which over and over again in political journalism boils down to refusing to take sides between a Fire Department and a fire? Are these professionals really going to wait until the last slack-jawed yokel in the United States has figured out that Mitt is full of shit before they dare to go so far out on a limb as to make pronouncements such as, "It seems that many Americans have begun to wonder whether they can trust everything Mitt Romney says. There is a growing perception that some of his statements may be inconsistent. Insiders have pointed out that many Presidents and Presidential candidates -- even including Mitt's own father, Goerge Romney" *gasps and screams of amazement can be heard in the background, but the on-camera pundit remains stony-face* "have been more forthcoming about their personal finances than Mitt Romney..." and are they going to pat themselves on the back for being so far behind the curve, or, as they call it, "objective," as if perception wouldn't have grown much more quickly in accurate directions if more pundits had been doing their fucking jobs and REPORTING WHAT THEY KNOW?!

Yes, I think they're going to continue to do the same pathetic job of covering this campaign on CNN and the broadcast networks, and no, I don't think they're really even going to try to protect you from lies and corruption. WAKE UP, turn off "The Newsroom," which is designed, as "The West Wing" was, to keep you in a happy trance in a wonderful what-if parallel universe while the real world goes to Hell, GET OFF THE COUCH and work for Obama.

Hey, Mitt!

Why don't you show us your returns? What are you hiding? Risky business in Switzerland and the Caribbean? A net worth much, much bigger than $250 million? People can keep speculating day and night about what you're hiding -- and why on Earth shouldn't they, when you behave differently in this respect than every other major-party candidate going back decades? Including John McCain, it's not correct when you claim you released the same amount of returns as he did, because he's released his returns every single year since the late '80s. You ticked off Bill Clinton yesterday by misrepresenting him, do you really want to tick off McCain, too? Didn't he see a lot of these top-secret-none-of-you-people's business returns when he vetted you?

You're such a clown! Today you say you're not a business and that's why the returns are nobody's business. Okay, so you're not a business. And you're already on the record saying that corporations are people. It follows from those two statements that you are not a person. Okay, that's easy for me to believe.

So what are you, a Martian or a robot?

If Romney Told the Truth

Earlier today someone speculated that the next Romney ad might attack Obama for smoking cigarettes. Which of course is an absurd thought, because Obama actually has smoked cigarettes, and the Romney campaign avoids truth the way Frankenstein's monster avoids fire.

It'd be neat if Romney released some honest ads. (Not to mention those friggin tax returns!) Imagine along with me:

"Romney: Because you'd rather see yacht sales skyrocket than poor people catch a break."

"Romney: More lies in one week than JFK told in a year. And JFK was gettin busy."

And of course: "Romney: he's white." (As we speak, the Romney campaign may be trying to hire Newt Gingrich to hint at that one. Back around the time Newt dropped out of the nomination race, Chris Matthews, whom I trust not to talk out of his ass as much as I trust Harry Reid -- which is to say I regard him as a solid source -- seemed convinced that Newt was furious at Mitt, because of Mitt's low blows and lies during the GOP primary debates, and would stab him in the back if he ever got a chance. Is this Newt's chance? Will he take a gig from the Romney campaign, with them expecting him to smear Obama, and instead ask, in front of Republicans from coast to coast, why Romney won't release those tax returns the way everyone else does these days who's running for President, the same way he asked during those debates, only with people paying attention this time? That would be really cool. If Newt does that I could imagine almost respecting him for a little while. [A half-hour or so. Let's not get carried away.])

"Romney: Creating jobs. Sweatshop jobs in China and India. Admit it, you really like all your inexpensive sweatshop products."

"Romney: Because you hate unions, teachers, firemen, blacks, women and Catholics. Biden's Catholic! Catholic and a liberal! One heartbeat away! After LBJ and Hoover went to all that trouble!"