By tarring conservatives as racist during the 2012 presidential campaign, MSNBC “essentially” mounted “a voter suppression campaign,” says the author of a new book on media bias.
“Some of the quotes I have in ‘Spin Masters’– you might remember them if you watch a lot of MSNBC — still make me cringe,” David Freddoso, author of the recently released book ◼ “Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama,” told The Daily Caller....
I’m always saving and categorizing noteworthy stories I read — essentially taking notes — just in case they prove useful later. In this case, the moment I figured I’d have to write something about media bias came on September 12 or 13. I was sitting next to Washington Examiner writer Phil Klein, who remarked in disbelief that the story about Benghazi — a huge story about Obama over-promising and under-delivering on Middle East policy — was being turned into a story about a Romney gaffe.
I began looking back also at other things I thought had been somewhat ridiculous — the media’s adoption of the phrase “War on Women,” for example, and the bizarre fascination with a contraceptive ban that no one actually seemed to be advocating — and wondered whether there might be enough material for a book. So I didn’t really start writing until after the election, but I had nearly everything outlined.
Did you begin writing before the campaign was over? It came out so fast.
Yeah, no kidding. But when you’re talking about liberal media bias, it pretty much writes itself. Well, now you know how I spent my nights, weekends, and Thanksgiving after the election.
Publication Date: January 28, 2013
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, part-time work is replacing full-time work; how low-wage jobs are replacing high-wage ones; how for Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 there are fewer jobs today than there were when the recession officially ended in 2009, and fewer, in fact, than at any time since mid-1997.
The downsizing of the American economy wasn’t the only story the media missed—or suppressed—there was also the unraveling of Obama's foreign policy and the deadly scandals at home (Fast & Furious) and abroad (the terrorist attack that killed the American ambassador at Benghazi).
But instead of serious, substantive journalism, the media reported ad nauseam on trifles (Big Bird), Republican-baiting hysteria (how everything the Republicans said was allegedly “racial code”), and distortions of Romney’s remarks (such as the 47% comment).
The media dropped the ball in covering the 2012 election, writes ◼ David Freddoso, editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner, and in doing so the media failed in their responsibility to keep politicians honest and the public well-informed. Freddoso, a New York Times bestselling author and former congressional reporter for National Review, fills this volume not only with outrageous examples of media bias, but also with dozens of real stories that genuinely inquisitive reporters should have relished but that the overwhelmingly liberal press didn't even bother to cover.
Full of the news you didn’t hear about in 2012, David Freddoso’s ◼ “Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama” will be the most provocative and accurate take of just how Barack Obama managed to get reelected amidst the worst economic times since at least the 1970s, and how the media helped him do it.
