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Lunch » Tags » Politics & Social Science » Reviews » Spin Masters: How The Media Ignored The Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama

Spin Masters: How The Media Ignored The Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama

1 rating: 4.0

2013 nonfiction book by David Freddoso

The biggest story of the election was how the media ignored the biggest story of the election. Amid all the breathless coverage of a non-existent War on Women, there was little or no coverage of Obama’s war on the economy—how, for instance, … see full wiki

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A media largely devoid of integrity, intellectual curiosity and patriotism.

Feb 15, 2013

by drifter51

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That is the inescapable conclusion most fair-minded readers will come to after reading David Freddoso's compelling new book "Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama". Clearly the vast majority of the print reporters, columnists and broadcast journalists were in the tank for this President during the 2012 election cycle. Their performance was disgraceful. And as Mr. Freddoso points out time and again this is certainly not a new phenomenon. It has been going on since Barack Obama burst onto the national scene and announced that he was going to be a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination back in 2008. Just ask Hillary. The author does a workmanlike job of offering example after example of so-called journalists who are all too willing to set aside principles such as truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability in order to advance a radical leftist agenda proffered by this Administration. What's more they do it openly and shamelessly.

In "Spin Masters" you will discover that the real objective of the mainstream media in 2012 was to defect attention away from critical issues like high unemployment, the attack on our embassy in Benghazi and the Justice Department's ill-advised and patently illegal "Operation Fast and Furious" that had the potential to thwart the President's re-election bid. Democrats were desperate to change the subject and sycophants in the media like George Stephanopoulos and Chris Matthews were all too willing to help. The Washington press corps simply refused to ask the tough questions on these and a host of other troubling subjects. Instead, the focus of the media shifted away from the real issues to the phony ones that they managed to create. Freddoso documents the efforts of both The New York Times and Washington Post to advance the notion of a Republican "War on Women". It was utter nonsense! Our friends at the New York Times even had the gall to compare the fight over birth control to the struggle for civil rights! Meanwhile, Freddoso also reports that aside from shielding the President from probing and embarassing questions the media also launched a viscious attack on the Republican ticket. According to Charles Blow at The New York Times Mitt Romney "does not have a soul" while the vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was variously characterized as a "scrooge", a "sociopath" and the zombie-eyed grammy starver from Wisconsin". I mean you just can't make this stuff up but clearly these attacks resonated with those whom Rush Limbaugh refers to as the "low information voter". And now this same media is all over Sen. Marco Rubio for taking a sip of water during this televised response to the President's State of the Union address. Some have even suggested that this disqualifies him from ever becoming President. Hispanics should be outraged by these tactics!

Throughout "Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama" David Freddoso offers up some rather obvious "Story Ideas" that he believes should have been persued during the course of the campaign. Some of the stories he he would liked to have seen included Obama's illegal recess appointments, Attorney General Eric Holder's possible involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, and the abject failure of the President's green energy initiatives to name but a few. In the closing weeks of 2012 campaign I recall having a conversation with a friend where I help out hope that at least a couple of conscientious journalists would do stories highlighting Barack Obama's numerous abuses of power during his first term. I thought that this might be just enough to turn the tide. In the past enterprising young journalists would have jumped at the chance to make a name for his or herself. Sadly, those stories never materialized. Our friends in the media were simply not interested. In spite of the fact that the deck is so stacked against them right now conservatives desperately need to figure out how to fight back. In the final chapter of "Spin Masters" called "Fighting Back With Good Ideas" David Freddoso offers some useful suggestions.

In his 1996 book "Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline" the late American legal scholar, jurist and patriot Robert H. Bork observed: "They just didn't go into universities. The radicals were not likely to go into business or the conventional practice of the professions. They were part of the chattering class, talkers interested in policy, politics and culture. They went into politics, print and electronic journalism, church bureaucracies, foundation staffs, Hollywood careers, public interest organizations, anywhere attitudes and opinions could be influenced". Clearly what Judge Bork worried about all those years ago has now come to pass. In "Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama" David Freddoso offers up a comprehensive and rather frightening look at the upshot of all of this. Essentially, we have a rogue government in place that has absolutely no interest in due process, the rule of law, civil discourse or for that matter the United States Constitution and a media perfectly willing to let them get away with all kinds of corruption and abuse of power. Slowly and systematically our country is being stolen from us with the full advice and consent of our lapdog media. It is breathtaking to watch. The American people really do need to figure this all out before it is too late. It may already be. Reading "Spin Masters" would be a great way to get up to speed on what hard-working and patriotic Americans are up against today. Highly recommended!

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