The Blue State

Saturday Editorial: Throwing Snowballs at the media

As the situation gets desperate for the White House, knowing that if Democrats take back the Legislative Branch six months from now that the Bush presidency will be all but over, political analysts are watching closely as the 2006 midterm election strategy is being unveiled by the GOP.  Made indirectly clear this last week, the strategy involves two important components:

1. The Haunted House Scenario: Painting a darkish illustration to voters of what it might be like if the Democrats control Congress.  GOP strategists want voters to imagine endless anti-Bush hearings, hyper partisanship and ultimately an effort to impeach the President.
2. The "I Hate The Media" Talking Points: Putting it simply, the new White House Press Secretary's job is to be the ultimate bomb-thrower that blames the mainstream media for all that has gone wrong over the last six months.  A clear majority of Americans believe that there is a bias in the media, whether liberal or conservative.  Snow's biggest targets will be the New York Times newspaper and CBS News.

For now, since I already discussed "The Haunted House Scenario" in a column earlier this week, I'll skip right to Tony Snow.  It is becoming clearer by the day why the White House chose the former Fox News analyst to become their newest Press Secretary.  They want his role to be less about defending the Administration than about actually getting the mainstream media off the President's tail.  Who better to punch back at the media than a personality from a conservative network constructed by Rupert Murdoch and organized by former Reagan strategist Roger Ailes with the main purpose of trashing the mainstream media in some way or another during each show.  Everyone at Fox, from Bill O'Reilly to Jim Pinkerton, make a living off of advancing the notion originated by GOP strategists in the late-1970s that the media has a left-wing bias.

But will this Tony Snow, media-bashing tactic work?  Maybe on Fox News, where to them the biggest story these days is Patrick Kennedy's car crash and not the coffins of U.S. soldiers coming back each day on military planes.  As far as the mainstream media's response goes, it will be hard for them to simply sit there and let Tony Snow bully them around without at least rising above his rhetoric and focusing on what actually is happening.  There still is a war going on.  Soldiers are still dying.  My guess is that stories like Iraq, Gulf Coast reconstruction and scandal in Washington will be more newsworthy than the pro-White House rhetoric Tony Snow tries to spin to the press.  So attacking the media might not be the answer that Bush is looking for.  Rhetoric from a Press Secretary alone will not make the debacle in Iraq go away, nor will it all of a sudden raise the ethical standards of GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

But I will at least admit that their idea to use Tony Snow as they are will surely make for some entertaining segments on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The first Snow day

Tony Snow will be making this debut today as White House Press Secretary.  It generally takes a few weeks or so for the media to get a feel for the Press Secretary's rhetorical style -- so be surprised if we see any McClellan-like embarrassments until at least later this month, or at least until when the Dusty Foggo prostitution scandal explodes in the near future.

So be on your toes Helen Thomas.

Mainstream media trying to legitimize Tony Snow

It's official: John Snow is the new White House Press Secretary.  Unfortunately for truth-seekers out there, the mainstream media did not highlight his radical right-wing views.  MSNBC downplayed the conservatism of the Fox News star:

"President Bush on Wednesday named Tony Snow, a conservative pundit whohas nonetheless been critical of the administration, as his presssecretary — the latest move in Bush’s effort to remake his troubledWhite House."

CNN echoed that media spin:

"As a commentator, Snow, 50, has had some critical things to say about the president."

And expected, Fox News offered the same spin:

"Some critics point to Snow's criticisms of thepresident's policies in the past as a cause for possible discord in theWhite House, but Martin Frost, a former Texas Democraticrepresentative, said Snow will just have to tamp down on those in hisnew position."

Is it just me, or is it surprising that the mainstream media wants to focus more on Snow's criticisms of the Bush Administration than the fact that Fox News serves as the unpaid White House media echo-chamber?  Fox News' conservative bias is the real story here!

Furthermore, even the idea that Snow is regularly critical of the Administration is far-fetched.  Snow has defended the White House on just about everything:

- "American journalists and politicians made a perfect spectacle of themselves in discussing the Abu Ghraib prison controversy."
- "In other words, Social Security is every bit as insecure as the stock market."
- "It serves notice that President Bush is seriousabout promoting freedom, because free societies are a lot morepeaceable than dictatorships and monarchies."
- "Journalists love a feeding frenzy, and the presscorps would have loved nothing more than a tale that would have nailedthe president and Donald Rumsfeld with fresh prisoner-abuse allegations."
- "The idea of leaving Iraq by a date certain also smacks of imbecility."
- "President Bush has committed billions to the fightagainst AIDS, thus making retroviral drugs available to millions ofHIV-positive Africans."

What the mainstream media calls a dissenter I call a longtime ally.

White House's hiring of Snow will be smoking gun against Fox News

Every morning before school I wake up to the local Fox News radio station.  I sit up in bed and listen to conservatives rant and rave about liberals for about 20 minutes before getting up (a little disinformation helps get the blood boiling in the morning).  This morning, the talk was centered around the news of Fox News personality Tony Snow possibly becoming the new White House Press Secretary.  For obvious reasons, the Fox News people want that to happen.  And for obvious reasons, liberals want it to happen too -- out of hope that it will vindicate the rather obvious conclusion that Fox serves as the White House's unpaid echo-chamber.

To me, Fox News' nonresistance to Snow's decision seems like a concession that the progressive blogosphere has succeeded in correctly pointing out the network's right-wing bias; and that the progressive campaign has worked so well that Fox has all but given up all efforts to resist that label.

The Hotline Blog in a column predicts there to be Snow in May!