Republicans should use this opportunity to fire back at the biased media by boycotting Meet The Press. The advantages outweigh the drawbacks.
On the wildly popular game show Jeopardy, contestants must state their answers in the form of a question. That’s pretty much the rule in lefty hack journalism as well. I do not support the candidacy of Newt Gingrich, but we cannot accept this sort of thing or we are bound to lose.
David Gregory, the host of NBC’s somewhat less popular Meet The Press, made an assertion of fact along the way to slandering a Republican candidate for President. I say he needs to put up or shut up. If he cannot produce the goods, and will not apologize for his baseless slander, then NBC should can him.
David Gregory began by rolling tape of Newt Gingrich speaking:
You want to be a country that creates food stamps? In which case frankly Obama is an enormous success. The most successful food stamp president in American history…. Or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks?
Gregory then made this statement, like a good jeopardy contestant, in the form of a question:
First of all you gave a speech in Georgia with language that a lot of people think could be coded — racially tinged language calling the president– first black president– a food stamp president…what did you mean, and what was the point?
As soon as Gingrich collected his jaw from the floor, he was up in Gregory’s grill, but of course did not get a chance on Gregory’s show to challenge him to back up his assertion.
I would like to know that David Gregory did not just make this up, or have it handed to him by some fertile-minded staffer. Where is the paper trail, the journalistic homework which should be required for journalists to make allegations as statements of fact. “a lot of people think [that language] could be coded, racially tinged”. Really? Who?
[pullquote]Republicans must agree to boycott Meet The Press until Gregory apologizes to Gingrich[/pullquote]
Nobody, of course. There must be a penalty for this or it will only get worse. If the GOP cannot come out swinging on this, then pack it away. Republicans, especially 2012 hopefuls, should refuse to appear on this awful little ambush of a show.
Republicans must agree to boycott Meet The Press until Gregory apologizes to Gingrich in person in his own time-slot, or NBC sacks Gregory.
That’s the obvious part. Also notice the more subtle assertion that Gingrich “called the president a food stamp president”. As you just saw, that didn’t quite happen that way, but it just became an established fact in the public mind. The context was presented (talking about America becoming a nation of food-stamp families under this president) so that the network cannot be accused of cherry-picking quotes out of context. But then, in broad daylight, the context is simply ignored and discarded. A new context begins to grow around the now isolated quote, and soon enough, you have a new nugget of conventional wisdom, which is that quote in isolation, running around the meme-space with no exact provenance and an ugly cloud of he-said, she-said allegations and denials of racist conduct on the part of the speaker. It becomes a wrongful balance. A controversy has been created out of thin air, complete with two sides and a backstory.
Of course there’s a straw-man argument that Gregory himself assumes that food stamps are a black issue, but that’s not the point I am making. That point is easily converted to a defense that he is portraying the issue as a perception (not his, others’ of course) that food stamps are a black issue, and that this is Gregory’s way of keeping everybody honest–because Gregory is beyond reproach. This defense is a standard in the lefty hack journalist playbook. But the critical point here is that nobody is entitled to such a presumption of not just innocence but nobility, such purity of character. Neither Gregory nor any other of his ilk are so critical of democrats, and no republican in the history of the party has operated with such a presumtion of beneficial intent as would be required to exonerate Gregory from charges of racism here.
Even so, with such a great flapping, quacking, flying, glaring indication of David Gregory’s racism, which is probably not racism at all, that is not the point. The point is that Gregory raised this issue solely to slander Gingrich as part of the contribution in kind, the service provided free of charge to the Obama campaign.
[pullquote]Gingrich did not make any sort of racial accusation, whereas Gregory most certainly did. The burden of proof is on Gregory, and it is high time the right pressed an advantage against the media.[/pullquote]
Gingrich did not make any sort of racial accusation, whereas Gregory most certainly did. The burden of proof is on Gregory, and it is high time the right pressed an advantage against the media.
There must be a penalty.
I urge every GOP hopeful to boycott David Gregory’s miserable show. “Oh, but we have to get out message out!” Never mind that. The GOP has been ignoring all but the furthest left media outlets; well let them spin. The reason more media is not available for the GOP message is that they are still stuck on stupid, still dutifully showing up where the left asks and answers the questions, with Republicans serving as props to catch what sometimes hits the fan. Start squeezing that channel down and watch others open up.
Choke off David Gregory’s access to the story-makers of this election until either NBC fires him, or he apologizes on his regularly scheduled show to Newt Gingrich.
