Mitt-O-Phobia: The real reasons for harsh Romney coverage
Call it the Curse of Clint. Ever since Clint “Empty Chair” Eastwood stepped onto the Republican convention stage, Mitt Romney has been saddled with the kind of scathing media coverage that normally requires a mug shot or a goofy appearance in a tank. It does not matter that the Republican nominee remains just a boffo debate performance away from righting his standing in the polls. What counts is the press-box assumption that Romney could not be in worse shape even if he had announced that—like the 47 percent—he felt “entitled” to be president.
At the same time, we have seen the widespread embrace in Republican circles that Romney is the victim of … (warning: what comes next is not for the faint of heart) … liberal media bias. As Chris Christie put it in his trademark blunt fashion, “Some people in the media should just turn in their media credential and get an ‘Obama for President’ credential, the way they focus on things that people said back last May.”
Here we go again, with the media wars that have been raging since anchormen like Walter Cronkite were jeered at the 1964 Goldwater convention and Spiro Agnew excoriated the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” These days, practically every political reporter and columnist who writes for a mainstream publication has a vituperative right-wing fan base. In the decade since I began writing for publications that encouraged online comments, I have often been accused of pocketing checks from the Democratic National Committee, and I have frequently heard it suggested that I act out my affection for Barack Obama in a particularly graphic fashion.
These accusations, by the way, are entirely untrue. (I almost joked that I am not on the DNC payroll because that would conflict with the terms of my pension from the KGB, but I stopped myself because in these humorless days anything can be ripped out of context.)
Wait! I have made clear that I am not now nor have I ever been a KGB agent, haven’t I? Haven’t I?
But even as I reject the tired complaints about the liberal media, I do wonder whether the scales are indeed tilted a bit against Romney. In raising the question, I am talking about trace amounts of subconscious cultural and professional bias, rather than (sorry, right-wingers) an overt conspiracy. Let me stress that I have not traveled with Romney since the primaries, so I am not relaying press bus gossip or late-night journalistic confessions. But after nine presidential campaigns, I can claim some knowledge about the circadian rhythms of political coverage.