The Decline of Blogs And Gaffes

CBS' Dick Meyer Takes Heart In The Dithering Of Two Traditional Campaign Weapons

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

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Two things seem to be less important in the campaign of 2008 than recent campaigns: blogs and gaffes. These are signs of political maturity, otherwise known as good news.

First, blogs: 2004 was the Year of the Blogger - supposedly. They built up Howard Dean, devoured John Kerry and anointed themselves kingmakers and queenbreakers of the left and right. They weren't that.

In 2008, no one is pretending they are. The Daily Kos is being treated like the Oracle of Delphi. Little Green Footballs isn't compared to Tammany Hall anymore.

I like blogs. Some of my best friends are bloggers. We publish several here on CBSNews.com. More written words are intrinsically better for the planet than less.

But I didn't like blog triumphalism - the idea that a Web format could dramatically change human communication, journalism and the mechanics of democracy.

I didn't like the championing of the discourtesy that flourishes on so many blogs and that indeed infects too many of the comments on sites like our own. I didn't like the spirit of attack, antagonism and anger. I didn't like the fondness for rumors.

I cannot prove it empirically, but my strong sense is that political reporters and professional trend spotters are paying far less attention to blogs than they expected to this year. Voters and readers never paid much attention blogs; it was an inside game. The triumphalism exists only in its own echo chamber.

The result seems to be that many enthusiastic newshounds have a couple of favorite blogs they like or like to disagree with and blogs are thus making a modest, very valuable contribution. Blog hubris is pretty much ignored. That's good news.

As for gaffes, well, they've been my pet peeve for years. We reporters make mountains of little candidate slip-ups that aren't even molehills. Maybe mole droppings. When John Kerry ordered Swiss cheese on a Philly cheese steak, it was proof he was an elitist snob. When Howard Dean yelled to loud at a rally after losing the Iowa caucuses, it was proof he was a nut.

Candidacies are actually harmed by trivialities like this. We reporters bemoan the lack of spontaneity in campaigns and then cannibalize spontaneous candidates.

Again, I can't prove it empirically, but I think gafffitis is on the decline this year.

John McCain has been a gaffe machine. Remember his little geo-political Beach Boys moment - "bomb, bomb, bomb - bomb, bomb Iran"? He also said he knew "a lot less about economics" than defense or foreign policy. He seems to be doing okay.

Hillary has been programmed to be gaffe-free. She once said she wanted to put oil company profits into a "strategic energy fund." But it was treated like a simple misstatement, which it was. She cried a couple times but that was irrelevant. She's still in the hunt.

Obama's campaign once put the phrase "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)" into campaign literature when discussing some financial ties the Clinton's have to Indian interests. He survived.

The latest supposed gaffe is Michelle Obama's statement, "Hope is making a comeback and, let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change." Colleagues have told me this gaffe will really haunt Obama. I doubt it.

Maybe there are just so many interesting and unexpected angles to write about this year that the political press doesn't need to invent trends and get petty. Or maybe, like the successful candidates this year, the press is listening more to the sensible silent majority than the noisemakers. That would be good news too.

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E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.

[alanrobisch]

The Times story seems to be good journalism. The reporting about the Times story seems to be mostly bad journalism.


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Posted by CBS_Oliver at 06:32 PM : Feb 22, 2008

Please explain

[cbs_oliver]

It is not inevitable that news stories will be biased. News stories are, after all, supposed to be fact based.

What is disappointing is that bloggers have found it easy to reveal a pervasive extreme lack of objectivity and professionalism in mainstream media reporting.

[cbs_oliver]

Posted by alanrobisch2 at 04:46 PM : Feb 22, 2008

The Times story seems to be good journalism. The reporting about the Times story seems to be mostly bad journalism.

[alanrobisch]

Today''''s trusth is that the press, both print and electronic, are owned liars. Who would want that hanging over their heads?

Not me.


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Posted by sincityq at 06:44 PM : Feb 21, 2008

why should I trust a blogger? I don''t know them. I don''t know where they got there information and they have no track record to prove the accuracy of what they say. I don''t think all media sources are liars. I just think you have to consider the source. I see no inherent value in blogs. They just seem to be vanity press publications where a person gets to say what they think. No problem but no value. Facts have value opinions mean lttle.

[alanrobisch]

And you "love it or leave it" dolts, before you get on your Jesus horse and ride in here to tell me off, I served my country and earned the right to criticize my government so stuff it.


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Posted by taddles at 04:13 PM : Feb 21, 2008
+ report
You didn''t earn it any more than anyone else and being ashamed of your country seems to be a liberal disease. No country is free of its faults so to love ones country is to accept its flaws along with its virtues.

I believe that many african-americans have reasons to not feel good about this country because of the way they got here and the restrictions placed on their civil liberties yet at the same time it might be time not just because of obama to quit carrying a grudge.

People like bill cosby have pointed out that solving problems inherent to blacks now lies with blacks not just getting rid of white racism. Effort and education will get you ahead black or white

[alanrobisch]

Stop lamenting about bias. It''''s always there, Just try to imagine whose ax is being ground in any offering you''''re reading or viewing and you''''ll do OK.


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Posted by quatrops at 11:03 AM : Feb 22, 2008

I totally agree. know the source first. One thing what did you think of the NYT publishing the story about an affair by john mccain. Was this a matter of bias? Many who I have read feel that it was poor journalism. Why did they do it?

[quatrops]

I am SO tired of the litany of complaints suggesting bias in the media (and by "media" I mean the full range: MSM, blogs, posts, mail, etc, etc. . . . in short, ANYONE who communicates to the public at large.) All are accused of "bias" . . to the left, to the right, corporate world influence, etc..

OF COURSE they''re biased! To be human is to be biased! And it is absured to expect anything else!

What is missing here is that each of us needs to take the responsibility to look at ANY media presentation or offering with a skeptic''s eye (or ear). One can''t expect ANYTHING to be "factual", "true",or "unbiased".

Each of us needs to keep informed from a wide range of alternative sources, evaluate potential conflicts of interest depending on the source, be skeptical about "factual" data, and THEN develop an informed opinion.

Stop lamenting about bias. It''s always there, Just try to imagine whose ax is being ground in any offering you''re reading or viewing and you''ll do OK.

[Cas2dy]

There are gaffes and then there are gaffes. Michelle Obama''''s possibly show her inner feelings. Her words were clear English and I understand she has made this statement in speeches several times. The press can excuse her if they want to and talk about Hillary''''s tears as a rejoinder but Michelle is not very warm and friendly.

Posted by sesanders1 at 02:21 PM

Well, listen to my words too then...Context is everything and only those who are looking for negative undertones will find them instead of the true facts the words represent. I am also finally proud of something tremendous and monumental happening here in the USA, something that is POSITIVE to the extreme and giving us all the opportunity to watch and live through history in the making. This isn''t tragedy, like 911, and it isn''t about war and killing and honoring soldiers, it''s about American''s coming together as a united force. UNITED, as in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...without a bunch of violence and separation and malice. We are sharing this, no matter whom we choose as our favorite and we are exuberantly fulfilling our nations need for us to be a part of it.
For the first time in my lifetime, we are seeing positive feedback and seeing citizens listening an participating in what''s going on within our government. GO, AMERICA!!! Yes, I am proud...Michelle didn''t mince words because she evidently thought that people of intellect (American''s)would hear what she was saying and not what she plain old wasn''t saying.

[cbs_oliver]

Mr. Meyer would do better to talk about the decline in the useful content coming from news organizations.

How many articles appearing on CBS are AP articles?

How many of those exact same articles appear on ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX and elsewhere?

How many stories about military matters are already filmed and written and presented to the "journalists" by their military contacts in near production form?

[cbs_oliver]

Some blogs do seem to be helpful in revealing the role of the media in covering, obscuring, and shaping the news, but most are self serving pop shows with little substance or enduring impact.

[quatrops]

One of the more predictable things about CBS''s comments section is that, every week or so, a new poster (or one rarely heard from) appears who feels compelled to offer multiple comments on the same article (3 or more needed to qualify).

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the number of posts they deem necessary and the amount of thought that goes in to their offerings.

For such occasions, I propose a weekly TWITSPEAK award, and suggest blue4green as the hands-down winner for this week.

[taddles-2009]

"Every liberal in this country is looking for dirt on McCain and this was all they could find! Gotta love it.

Posted by cbscrash07 at 02:19 PM : Feb 21, 2008"

McCain has a history of acting on behalf of lobbyists who pay him. He did so with the Keating scandal and seemingly did so again with the FCC interference according to the chair of the FCC.

If you want your elected officials affecting laws on behalf of those who pay the most than there is no problem here. However if you believe that American business should not be in the business of buying senators and congressmen then you have to look at every action taken by every member of congress on behalf of ever business.

[taddles-2009]

"Her words were clear English and I understand she has made this statement in speeches several times.

Posted by sesanders1 at 02:21 PM : Feb 21, 2008"

Let''s see, shes 39 so she first started voting in 1986, that would be during Reagan. Then we had Bush 1 (Iran Contra) and Clinton (getting some action in the oval office) and then Bush II (simply the biggest insult to the office of the Presidency ever)I think her statement is pretty much on the mark.

I haven''t been proud of my country in a long time either, I certainly wasn''t proud of it a couple months ago. Living under the Bush regime I was embarrassed to be an American, land of torture and per-emptive war.

And you "love it or leave it" dolts, before you get on your Jesus horse and ride in here to tell me off, I served my country and earned the right to criticize my government so stuff it.

[taddles-2009]

"I guess she was just not quite as liberal as Obama!

Posted by commonsence1 at 01:47 PM : Feb 21, 2008"

Your name is an Oxy-moron isn''t it...er perhaps not so Oxy.

[tbweb]

Sen. Barack Obama will be the first to tell anyone that his wife is more outspoken than he is! That every time his head gets up in the clouds Michelle Obama brings him back down to earth. At first I thought Michelle Obama made a gaffe too, but I really do think she meant it in a restrictive context and it came out wrong, the reason I think that is because if she meant it the way most think by the way she said it, she strikes me as the type of person who would say, no I didn''t make a gaffe, you understood me correctly, I meant it just the way I said it! Michelle Obama is not bashful about expressing herself, in this case it came out wrong.

[shingles1]

Back to the topic at hand...is *** Meyer even looking at the same political press corps that we are?! The same press corps that spent forever girlishly giggling about John Edwards'' hair. The same bunch of churlish high school gossip hounds, ruled by Drudge and Maureen Dowd, who hated Romney with a passion and allowed this hatred to color all their reporting. Modern political reporting is all horse race all the time with an occasional foray into he said/she said territory. At best. To find out what the real facts are on any given issue or what the candidates real stances on the issues are, you have to go to sources other than the mainstream media. The mainstream media is utterly worthless when it comes to "journalism" and most political journalists are nothing more than stenographers.

There are gaffes and then there are gaffes. Michelle Obama''s possibly show her inner feelings. Her words were clear English and I understand she has made this statement in speeches several times. The press can excuse her if they want to and talk about Hillary''s tears as a rejoinder but Michelle is not very warm and friendly.

[Syndicate]

shingles1 you must have missed it yesterday when they were showing McCain and Obama next to each other with thier delegate counts. This gave the impression Obama was some how ahead of McCain. 1200 to 800. Bias? maybe.

Didn''t the press pronouce McCain dead 3 months ago? I think its funny that the NYT dedicated 8 or 9 pages to McCain and all he did was tell the FCC to do thier dam job at the request of a lobbyist. I love it. Every liberal in this country is looking for dirt on McCain and this was all they could find! Gotta love it.

[shingles1]

commonsence1, except for the fact that CBS gave prominent play to three negative stories about Obama this week alone: Michelle''s proud comment, the public financing pledge, and the plagiarism story.

The McCain/lobbyist story is the first time that the mainstream press has written a negative story about their golden boy, McCain. As Chris Matthews said about McCain, "The press loves McCain. We''re his base."

[bm6005]

Let''s face facts, the lack of voter participation by many Americans has always been a sore spot with a lot of people. My wife went to a local caucus this Feb and it was overwhelmed by participants. 75 vs 4 in ''06 so yes I agree wholeheartedly with Michelle Obama''s comment. Back off you are misunderstanding her words. We live in the mountains so there''s always few people attending but even in local flatland communities the facilities were overwhelmed and many were turned away! I''ve always been pissed at the lack of participation in voter %''s so this is a good sign. It also shows how pissed the American people are at the current admin. I have never missed a presidential election since I was first eligible to vote in ''68 and I participate as a veteran who takes this responsibility seriously!