Media Watch: Press Spews Garbage about Hillary

I won't be voting for Hillary in the primary. But, if current trends pan out, and several of the better candidates lose in their efforts to make a real Democrat out of her, she may be the only game in town. The other side, Prey-on-yer-fear-mongers-R-Us, will send us further into the rat-hole. Voting for or sitting idly by for the police-state-inclined, autocrat, 9-11 exploiter and fear/war-monger Giuliani, or his terrible cast of radical "right" lessors--well, that's not an option. There simply is no way to sit it out.

Far be it from me to try to "rescue Hillary, but.." The media are relentless in trying to lead the masses to do just that (sit it out). And it is by design. No, I am not talking about the debate, which Hillary and crew tried to spin as "piling on." She deserved it (the piling on). And her campaign is pathetic for playing that card. Can she compete in a tough campaign or not? If not, then why should we hire her? The real outrage that night was the MSNBC celebrity questioners, who didn't intend to give the other candidates a fair or honest screening. And so, most of the questions were directed at Hillary as if the others did not exist. The rest got pitched incredibly undermining questions, such as "Do you believe in UFOs?" How else would the dissed get an airing than to be scrappy with the media-anointed, Rupert Murdoch-supported front-runner? So, I celebrate the so-called piling on. Hillary continues to triangulate remorselessly and needs to be held to account.

I am talking about something else. I speak of the ongoing trivialization and ridicule the media unleashes about her even as I write. It was predictable, that the media anoint a "front runner" because that's how they set that person up for a fall. The media giveth and the media taketh away. We've been there before. And it's already started again.

We are continually reminded of such trivialities as her "signature" pants suits. Yep, only Hillary wears pantsuits in this country, her "signature alright (sarcasm).

Yesterday and the day before, Chris Matthews has made an absurd federal case about her clapping. Read about it here. Before that it was her laugh. OK, I admit it was inappropriate laughing at times. She seemed to laugh at exactly the most serious moments. Was it nerves? Was it contrived? I don't care. Enough! How someone laughs is irrelevant. This kind of stuff is just nasty. It reminds me of the empty vessels, such as the snide someone at my workplace, who once told me I had a "fake smile." (What I had was (is) partial numbness, parasthesia from jaw surgery.) Are such people grownups or are they 12? Still, the media pick, pick, picks and won't stop until they draw blood. Look at the mileage they got from one brown Al Gore suit? This is the most political decision most people ever make and the media gives us smiles and suits for content?

And then there are the outright lies, including on NPR, and elsewhere in the blogosphere (ABC for instance), about Hillary supposedly not leaving a tip. The problem is it isn't true. Later the ABC blog was updated. But millions of Americans have been told by various media outlets that Hillary didn't leave a tip. Here's the update:

The Clinton campaign contacted ABC News to assert that they did, contrary to yesterday's claim to NPR, pay $157 for food at Maid-Rite and left a $100 tip to be split among the staff.

That's a pretty hefty tip. But never mind. The media devour a person anyway. Get the full story and the update here.

The latest is media writing about her cough and losing her voice (see here). Anything to portray her as "shrill," which the media frequently try to do.

But several media outlets portrayed it as a "coughing fit." Always put the worst connotation on it. You know, a "fit" suggests something more twisted. Are you ready for 2008 to be over yet?

Are you as sick as I am at the unrelenting, snot-nosed, deceptive, coverage by Chris Matthews and all the cast of trivialists? If, so, let your media outlets know. They are polluting the airwaves with the latest trivial digs at our candidates, celeb rehab, and Rosie. As for me, it's iPod time.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200711100001