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The Shea-Porter State Media Double Standard

by: Dean Barker

Fri Dec 04, 2009 at 06:18:46 AM EST
Certainly not the first time - just the latest example:
Shea-Porter quiet on war
Reaction to surge has arrived slowly

By SHIRA SCHOENBERG
Monitor staff
December 04, 2009

Does Carol Shea-Porter agree with President Obama's war strategy in Afghanistan?

Within hours of Obama's speech Tuesday night, the congresswoman's fellow Democrats, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Paul Hodes, weighed in with generally positive views of the president's policy. Republican Sen. Judd Gregg gave his opinion the day before.

Shea-Porter, however, gave little response. Asked yesterday for her views on the speech, Shea-Porter, through spokeswoman Jamie Radice, responded, "I have not heard anything to change my mind. However, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, I look forward to hearing from (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates and Admiral (Michael) Mullen tomorrow, and General (Stanley) McChrystal and Ambassador (Karl) Eikenberry next week."

Let me get this straight:

* Carol Shea-Porter talks about Afghanistan, entirely consistently with all previous comments dating from her trip there in May, on the morning of Obama's speech.  The Monitor article includes it ("I have not been in agreement" with the decision to send 30,000 more troops.) as the last graf of a piece headlined "Shea-Porter quiet on war".

* Judd Gregg also gives his views before the speech.

* Paul Hodes issues a press release after the speech which does not give a firm position one way or another. Senator Shaheen's is also ultimately non-committal.

This article makes no sense at all unless you start to wonder whether there is one state media standard for Carol and another for other NH pols.

Adding: I think the source of this double standard has two roots: 1) that someone who not only had the insight to be against the Iraq war, but also the courage to be an activist about it, in the eyes of the punditocracy can never be a legitimate member of Washington, even while she remains a leader on veterans' issues, and 2) that Carol represents a district in which the Union Leader, a media organ perpetually hostile to her, still has some ability to influence other state media outlets.

All of which makes it incredibly important for us to have Carol's back every single time she is maligned.  It is such a truly rare thing to have someone so genuine representing "the rest of us," that we bear a larger responsibility than is customary in making sure we hold on to that representation.
Dean Barker :: The Shea-Porter State Media Double Standard
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The Shea-Porter State Media Double Standard | 14 comments
New media most important (0.00 / 0)
Well said, Dean. This is further proof of the need for "new media" like this blog & others, as well as for our informal networks of information, to pick up the slack where traditional media fails us or attempts to outright manipulate us. The truth on Shea-Porter's position was, as you note, not difficult to find as long as one wasn't blinded by cliches or a personal agenda. Makes you wonder just what a "professional journalist" is these days.

The decline of the newspaper industry overall can not all be blamed on Internet competition; their own falling standards of objectivity and even of verification are a big part of that story. Sad.

As long as there was a defined ruling class, it was easy for the (0.00 / 0)
press to report the important stuff.  It was whatever important people wanted to be known.  Being self-directed and running the risk of making a mistake is a lot harder.  Which is one reason so much of the focus is on predicting the future.  Predicting the future not only requires no fact-checking; being wrong is actually a positive in terms of satisfying the audience.
[ Parent ]
Representative Shea-Porter is a problem for the press (4.00 / 2)
because of her persistent refusal to follow their script.  The way it's supposed to work is that the press asks a question at its own convenience and then inserts the answer to back up a perspective that's already been scripted. The press does not want to hear that the question has already been answered or is not relevant at the current time.  The press does not like being put in its place.  So people who do that are going to be dismissed.

If you confront editors with this perspective, they'll tell you that their job is to provide their readers what they want.  This is a convenient fiction which lets the editorial people feel important and frustrates reporters who never get to cover what they consider important.

Very important observation... (4.00 / 1)
and the Republican quotes give CM the fodder for the story they instinctively want to write.

In the end, Carol will make them come to her.  She is engaging the issue thoughtfully and as she continues to do that, the CM and UL stories will continue to be a cranky as they can manage, but the integrity of her position will come through anyway.

[ Parent ]
What I also find (4.00 / 7)
frustrating is that politicians are not "allowed" to have nuanced positions, or even change their positions based on more information. This Shea-Porter quote from Dean's previous diary squares with how I feel at the moment:

"

"For this build up my inclination is no, but I am going to listen very carefully."

We need policy makers to listen. She's honest about where she's coming from, but is waiting for more facts.

I feel similarly. My instant reaction is to be against more military build-up, but I know it's important to keep an open, hopefully objective mind.

Carol is great and her detractors can't stand it.

yes, I think she's representing us very well (4.00 / 2)
in saying, "I don't like this.  I'm skeptical.  But I need to engage this responsibly.  I don't have the luxury of a facile critique."
[ Parent ]
I almost get the sense ... (0.00 / 0)
.. the reporter was attacking her because she did not make her job easy by having a press release ready to cut-and-paste into her story like Gregg did.

The first line in the story is: "Does Carol Shea-Porter agree with President Obama's war strategy in Afghanistan?"

And Carol answers it, not once but twice:

I have not heard anything to change my mind. However, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, I look forward to hearing from Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen tomorrow, and General McChrystal and Ambassador Eikenberry next week.

I have not been in agreement with the decision to send 30,000 more troops. We need a presence there, need to keep working to catch terrorists....my inclination is no.
 
[ Parent ]
Reminds me of what Bill Clinton said (4.00 / 4)
At the JJ dinner, former President Clinton said he knew before President Obama announced his Afghanistan strategy this week that he would support it, because President Obama had not allowed himself to be stampeded into making a decision, but insisted on thinking it through.

No matter where Congresswoman Shea Porter comes down on this, whether I agree with her or not, I know that she will have thought it through, and that she will make a principled decision.  




"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

Bill also said (0.00 / 0)
that this is a decision without a knowable outcome...so it is easy for ambitious press folk to attack any position rhetorically.

Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
yesterday's weather...another reminder (0.00 / 0)
I was in Boston at one o'clock on Dec. 3, it was 66 degrees at about 1:15, one degree warmer than L.A. So while Bill is right that Australia is buring up, all politics is still local...66 in Boston on a December day felt really really nice.Now back to reality....

Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
It's important to remember (4.00 / 1)
that Carol Shea-Porter's election was a fluke, and as such, her tenure is a fluke and must be held to a higher standard as she did not earn her office.  Oddly enough, this fluke happened twice with nearly identical but slightly improved results the second time.  Hmm.
Can you imagine Frank Guinta... (4.00 / 4)
 getting up on his hind legs and saying something as nuanced and thoughtful as Carol did on an issue as complex as Aghanistan?

Neither can I. That's one reason we need to support Carol as much as we can.

'nuanced and thoughtful' (4.00 / 1)
two words I have never seen in the same sentence with Frank since his arrival in NH ten years ago.

2012 starts today.
[ Parent ]
Et tu, Monitor? (0.00 / 0)
Come on, being the press release police is not journalism.

--
@DougLindner
The Shea-Porter State Media Double Standard | 14 comments

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