The Honeymooners

(Courtesy of Jenny Dubin)

On Friday, I mentioned that Barack Obama's media honeymoon may soon come to an end. Obama was profiled last night on "60 Minutes." It was a solid segment, one that touched on the major criticisms of Obama, including his inexperience and his past drug use. But it certainly did not mark a shift towards more negative coverage of the candidate. Obama came off as a likeable family man with big ideas – exactly the kind of image a presidential candidate wants to project.

Media commentators like Howard Kurtz have called the positive coverage of Obama "unreal." There is, Kurtz wrote, "a journalistic hunger for a young, attractive black candidate who somehow seems to transcend race." To be sure, there is something to that notion. But it's also worth remembering that Obama has a tremendous personal magnetism – at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I saw firsthand the way he can make even the most cynical journalists swoon. One lesson that Obama has taught us is that the press corps tends to put likeability on a pedestal to a greater degree than most reporters might like to admit. The question now is just how much longer he'll be able to leverage that likeability before the press corps turns the corner.

UPDATE, 10:25 AM: According to Obama, likeability – not to mention attractiveness – isn't always a good thing. In a press conference, he said that the media is "ignoring his substantive record and falsely depicting him as a lightweight," as Ben Smith of the Politico put it. The candidate said this about his policy record: "The problem's not that the info's not out there. The problem is that that's not what you guys have been reporting on. You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit."

[bmidji]

Brian, Obama sounds Gary-Hartesque: I dare you to cover my voting record! I dare you!

First challenge: has Obama ever voted for greater penalties for use of illegal drugs? That was the angle the media used in 1999 to press Dubya on rumors of drug use as a young man. Why didn't CBS look at Obama's record on drug laws?

[one_american]

It's all too typical that the media will gush all over a Democrat candidate based upon nothing but superficial nonsense.

No wonder liberals believe the cr@p that pours from the Hollywood mouths. They believe the liberal media, and the liberal media trains them to act that way.

[memekiller]

I can't imagine a major network ever running a story that takes the idea that a Republican was trained in a radical Islamic madrassa seriously, based entirely on the scandal mongering of the mouthpiece of a religious cult with a history of fabrications, as you did with Obama. Nor could I imagine places like CNN would ever sink so far as to seriously suggest a Democrat is emulating the President of Iran because he doesn't wear a tie (as does the entire Bush Administration when they go to Crawford). To call this coverage fawning simply defies belief.

CBS and CNN would never contemplate acting as the conduits for such rediculous, substanceless fluff on any Republican, no matter how vile, let alone even consider not referring to McCain as a "straight shooter" no matter how many flip-flops he performs.

What the media has done to Obama is no less reprehensible to anyone who cares for journalism than your enabling of the Swift Boat Vets, yet associating non-Republicans with terrorism is par for the course in DC.

If this is fawning, I can't wait to see the nonsense you'll play useful idiot to in the coming months.