Wall Street Journal uncritically quoted McCain ad without noting its distortions
SUMMARY: A Wall Street Journal article uncritically quoted an ad by Sen. John McCain's campaign that accuses Sen. Barack Obama's campaign of being "disrespectful" to Gov. Sarah Palin without noting that the ad contains several distortions. The article also uncritically quoted an unnamed "McCain spokesman" as saying, "Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment, no history of bucking his party and no chance of bringing change," without noting that Obama has played key roles in the passage of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate.
A September 13 Wall Street Journal article by Nick Timiraos and Christopher Cooper uncritically quoted a new ad by Sen. John McCain's campaign that accuses Sen. Barack Obama's campaign of being "disrespectful" to Gov. Sarah Palin without noting that the ad contains several distortions. Additionally, Timiraos and Cooper uncritically quoted an unnamed McCain spokesman as saying, "Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment, no history of bucking his party and no chance of bringing change," without noting that Obama has played key roles in the passage of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate.
Timiraos and Cooper reported: "For its part, the McCain campaign sought to keep Gov. Palin at the fore in an ad aimed at working-class women, including some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. The ad hit back against the Obama campaign, saying it called her a liar and dismissed her as 'good looking.' 'How disrespectful,' a narrator says in a voiceover in the ad. 'And how Governor Sarah Palin proves them wrong every day.' However, the article did not report that the ad contains several distortions. As Media Matters for America has documented, an analysis of the ad by FactCheck.org noted that the ad "takes words out of context to make it sound as though the Democratic ticket is belittling Palin" and stated that it "distorts" each of the three Obama campaign statements it uses "to make the case" that Obama is "being 'disrespectful' of Palin." Regarding the ad's assertion -- as reported by Timiraos and Cooper -- that the Obama campaign "called [Palin] a liar," Factcheck.org stated:
The ad wraps up by saying Obama and Biden "desperately called Sarah Palin a liar." And it adds, "How disrespectful."
The reference is to an ad the Obama-Biden campaign released in which it criticizes Palin for saying she was against the infamous Bridge to Nowhere when she had previously been for it. (We called into question Palin's comments on the bridge last week.) The Obama ad says, "Politicians lying about their records. You don't call that maverick, you call it more of the same." It then quotes an item from the liberal magazine The New Republic, which called the claim that Palin stopped the pork-barrel bridge project "a naked lie."
Indeed, as Media Matters has documented, Palin has put forth outright falsehoods about her purported opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere project.
Additionally, regarding the "good looking" comment quoted by Timiraos and Cooper, Factcheck.org stated:
The ad says Obama and [Sen. Joe] Biden "lashed out at Sarah Palin. Dismissed her as 'good looking.' "
That's misleading. The reference is to a report of Biden joking that one of the differences between Palin and him is that "she's good looking." But the report cited in the ad doesn't characterize Biden's remarks as dismissive. Instead, ABC News' Jake Tapper and Matt Jaffe describe a moment when Biden "ham[s] it up" for the crowd, with one woman telling Biden that he's "gorgeous." The Democratic candidate then says he'd like to end "on a serious note."
[...]
Our ears don't hear Biden's "good looking" comment as dismissive. To the contrary, it's clearly a self-deprecating remark made in joking about himself and his looks. And by the way, the ad shows a picture of Obama next to the "good looking" quote, but it was Biden, not Obama, who said that.
Further, Timiraos and Cooper uncritically quoted an unnamed "McCain spokesman" saying "Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment." However, they did not note that Obama has, in fact, played key roles in the passage of bipartisan legislation, including legislation for which McCain praised Obama's work.
With Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (OK), Obama was a key co-sponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S.2590) -- often referred to as the Coburn-Obama bill. McCain was a co-sponsor of the legislation and praised Obama's work on the bill during July 18, 2006, remarks in a Senate subcommittee hearing about the legislation, saying : "Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman [Coburn], and I want to thank you and Senator Obama and Senator [Thomas] Carper [D-DE] and Chairwoman [Susan] Collins [R-ME] for your involvement in all these issues and including this specific one ... I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to again thank the bipartisanship that is associated with this bill, including Senator Carper and Senator Obama."
Further, Obama also worked with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (IN) to produce the "Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative." The initiative, according to a joint press release by Lugar and Obama's Senate offices, "expands U.S. cooperation to destroy conventional weapons. It also expands the State Department's ability to detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction." In addition, four of the 12 co-sponsors of Obama's bill (S.2125) to "promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo" were Republicans: Sam Brownback (KS), Susan Collins (ME), Mike DeWine (OH), and James Inhofe (OK). President Bush signed the bill into law on December 22, 2006.
From the September 13 Wall Street Journal article:
The [Obama] campaign's new ad made light of the 72-year-old Sen. McCain's age and his admission that he doesn't know how to use email. The ad features a photo of Sen. McCain from the 1980s with a dated hairstyle and wearing big glasses while elevator music plays in the background.
Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a top Obama surrogate, told reporters the attack wasn't personal, but that Sen. McCain's unfamiliarity with computers signaled he is out of touch with the global economy. "The world has changed," Rep. Emanuel said. "He's missing out on this big revolution that has happened."
A McCain spokesman dismissed the latest attacks. "Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment, no history of bucking his party and no chance of bringing change," he said.
[...]
For its part, the McCain campaign sought to keep Gov. Palin at the fore in an ad aimed at working-class women, including some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. The ad hit back against the Obama campaign, saying it called her a liar and dismissed her as "good looking."
"How disrespectful," a narrator says in a voiceover in the ad. "And how Governor Sarah Palin proves them wrong every day."
Let's hope that Rahm Emanuel is right and the world has changed. The "Disrespectful" ad should be the McCain campaign's Macaca Moment, but I doubt it.
He helped pass ONE piece of legislation, putting the spending of congress on line. He like others will often become co-signators on bills that they know they will never have to vote on. It dies in committee but they look like they are doing something.
The transparency act had 47 co-sponsors, it didn't require alot of convincing of the other members, unless he did 'senate-community organizing' behind the scenes! Lugar authored the Lugar-Obama bill, which is why it is named as such. He was an important co-sponsor, not author.
Most of his work did not even make it out of committee.
"Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment...
"Can't force Republicans to do anything"
, no history of bucking his party
"Hasn't caved in to the Republicans"
and no chance of bringing change,"
...If by "change" you mean doing the same thing Republicans have been doing for the past eight years.
Are they working for Obama?
This whole "respect" thing has me confused.
I might need to refresh my memory on the definition of "respect", because I could have sworn that McCain spent megabucks putting together and airing a commercial demanding that Obama show some respect to a political opponent, and yet I haven't heard a single word on his position regarding the disrespect that Karl Rove, Dr. Kaye Whitley, Harriet Miers, Sara Taylor, etc. have shown for the Congress of the United States.
In the eyes of Rove and the others, this is the face of Congress, and the United States of America---
I posted this on another website yesterday when Carly Fiorina made the claim that Obama never bucks his party:
This talking point has been repeated may times (and it usually goes by without any retort from an Obama surrogate):
Obama has never bucked his party.
The proper response should be:
Americans agree with Democrats on the Iraq War, abortion, immigration, the economy, taxes, health care, education, social security, the environment, etc. so Obama doesn’t have too much to buck his party on. On the other hand, McCain has had many chances to buck a party that’s on the wrong side of almost every issue and to move into the mainstream but he’s chosen to stick with Bush 90 percent of the time. In fact, he’s moved further out of the mainstream in order to appease the far right during this election season.