Think Progress

Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.

By Matt Corley on May 5th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.

In yesterday’s New York Times/CBS News poll, respondents were asked to address how the news media have treated each of the three remaining presidential candidates in comparison to each other. Considering that reporters like the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray say Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will have to “wait” until after the Democratic primary to “get his fair share of scrutiny,” it’s not surprising that more people feel he has gotten the easier coverage than both Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL):

(HT: CJR)

Comments
51

39 Responses to “Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.”

freedom lover says:

Nice to have the rightwing press in your corner, too bad it won’t help him. he’s toast.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Badmoodman says:

Easier? Hell, the media’s been licking McCain’s balls.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
AngryOne says:

On Sunday, South Carolina Senator and John McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham issued a challenge. Claiming on CNN that McCain “is his own guy,” Graham then threw down the gauntlet, “Good luck making him George Bush.”

So take the challenge and help show Americans why a John McCain victory in November means a third term for George W. Bush:
“Take Lindsey Graham’s John McCain Challenge.”
May 5th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
old_hack says:

SEE? this is exactly what I’m talking about! How come this poll doesn’t mean ANYTHING? our representative government has been completely bought out by private enterprise and no longer gives a shit about what we think or what we want and they NEVER WILL until we have the right to vote.

Noam Chomsky said it himself. check out this clip I found today on his thoughts on Libertarianism.

Noam Chomsky LP
May 5th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
cavjam says:

reporters like the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray say Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will have to “wait” until after the Democratic primary to “get his fair share of scrutiny,

I think Shailagh meant “till thick hoarfrost coats the molten lava of hell,” but just as a matter of logic – why should there be a wait at all? It’s not like they can’t make a mention of his egregious ignorance between tsk-tsking Obama’s naked lapels or Hillary’s pantsuited shrillness.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
barfly says:

Breaking news (from San Diego Union Trib):

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego firm and a Los Angeles man were named as defendants in a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles on behalf of an Iraqi man who alleges he was tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison, the man’s lawyers announced.

Emad Al-Janabi, a 43-year-old blacksmith, filed the action against Steven Stefanowicz and three business entities: Arlington, Va.-based defense contractor CACI International Inc., its subsidiary, CACI Premier Technology Inc., and L-3 Communications Titan Corp. of San Diego, according to Philadelphia-based law firm Burke O’Neil.

Stefanowicz is a former CACI contractor known around Abu Ghraib as “Big Steve,” Burke O’Neil said. He was linked to abuses at the prison in military court martial proceedings and was said to have directed low-level U.S. military personnel in prisoner interrogations, Burke O’Neil said.

The law firm did not say who allegedly tortured Al-Janabi, nor did it provide details about Stefanowicz’s alleged activities at the prison.

Representatives for CACI International and L-3 Communications Titan Corp. were not immediately available for comment.

Abu Ghraib hit the headlines in 2004 when allegations surfaced of physical, sexual and psychological abuse committed by U.S. personnel.

Photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib led to an international outcry and the convictions of several guards assigned to the prison, which is located about 20 miles west of Baghdad.

In his lawsuit, Al-Janabi claims he was beaten and forced from his home in September 2003 by people dressed in U.S. military uniforms and civilian clothing, Burke O’Neil said. He was released from Abu Ghraib without being charged in July 2004, Burke O’Neil said.

The lawsuit alleges violations of federal law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy and it claims that CACI provided interrogators at the prison while L-3 employed all translators used there, Burke O’Neil said.

The lawsuit also claims that Al-Janabi was physically and mentally tortured in sessions in which the defendants acted as interrogators and translators, shown a mock execution of his brother and nephew, hung upside down with his feet chained to a bunk bed until he was unconscious, deprived of food and sleep and threatened with dogs, Burke O’Neil said.

During a surprise inspection of the prison in October 2003, the International Red Cross found Al-Janabi in a cell, naked, chained and bruised, Burke O’Neil said. He was a “ghost detainee” who was hidden from the Red Cross on subsequent inspections and held without appearing on Abu Ghraib’s prisoner lists, Burke O’Neil said.

“We want the complete truth about Abu Ghraib to be told,” Al-Janabi said in a statement. “The world must know what happened.”

Burke O’Neil also claims that a newly published book, “Our Good Name,” by CACI Chairman J.P. London, reveals that the company’s internal investigation failed to include any interviews of detainees or of a former employee whistleblower.

“Private military contractors can’t act with impunity outside the law,” said Katherine Gallagher, an attorney Center for Constitutional Rights who is also representing Al-Janabi. “They have to be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities. We believe what they and their employees did clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual and the laws of the United States.”
May 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
MOONBAT says:

The only poll that has any meaning is the one in Nov. when the Repubs will be gone.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Crusty Old Bastard says:

MOONBAT Says:

“The only poll that has any meaning is the one in Nov. when the Repubs will be gone.”

Well said, my friend. Not only will the Rethugs be gone they will be dead, buried, their bones picked clean, and then forgotten. Hillary will balance the budget, pay off the deficit, bury the Arabs, and get us out of hock with China with the fines the courts levy against bushco and the sycophantic corporations. Halliburton and the Oil Maggot CEO’s will be scrubbing the commodes at Leavenworth after the dethroned King George the Dumb and The Dick (not because his front name is Richard) have upchucked the crow they had for dinner.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Wayne says:

barfly Says:

Breaking news (from San Diego Union Trib)

Good news, but the bad news is it is a lawsuit, not our nation’s law enforcement, nor our useless Congress.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
alpuz3 says:

why are all Crusty Old Bastards such Crusty Old Bastards? Forget it. It was an
rhetorical question. I know the answer… they are republicans, through and through.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
RUCerious says:

At least some people realize how stacked this deck is. After the dems have a nominee, McIIIrd is toasted turd.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Keith says:

CBS/NYTimes poll: Obama 51%, McCain 40%
Hillary beats McCain by 12%
Democrats only: Obama 50%, Hillary 38%

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/04/opinion/polls/main4069259.shtml
May 5th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
sikantis says:

Let’s treat each other with esteem please.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
shaun says:

Badmoodman Says:
——————————————————————————–

Easier? Hell, the media’s been licking McCain’s balls.

absolutely correct – and there is a great piece by ariana huffington on her website about it today – well worth a read
May 5th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
GSD says:

Leave John McHeinous alone!

-GSD
May 6th, 2008 at 12:19 am
dbadass says:

too much concern about esteem is what has caused the chaos in public ed. Before one feels good about onesself they have to actually accomplish something
May 6th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Arctic Ghetto says:

If the media hacks get any nicer to McCain they will have bring a drool rag and change his “Depends”.
May 6th, 2008 at 1:45 am
rockyroad says:

A bit off point, but as a loyal SMU grad I must say, that re-thinking the entire death penalty issue at SMU, it becomes clear that it was not the athletic department, the faculty or players that went wrong, it was the Board of Directors, the same folks that have approved the Bush library. They let the athletic department and university take the hit at a time when they were potentially under scrutiny for the S&L crisis (recall Neil Bush, Silverado and President Bush’s promise to put the “full faith and credit of the United States” behind the failed institutions that his son had so fully participated in). Today, it’s a different crisis, a mortgage crisis, but a Bush is still a centerpiece, and SMU is still down for the hit. Millions being invested in a sham library to hide the malfeasence of its royal beneficiary. Again, the SMU Board of Directors (of whom Cheney has been a member) is willing to let the university suffer for the resurrection of a Bush reputation. SMU is taking a terrible hit, but again, just as before, it is not the student body, faculty, administration, or alums, it is the Board of Directors, Cheney et al. Please help us, once and for all, save this institution of Church, from politication by state. We’ve suffered the death penalty once . . . isn’t it Bush’s turn?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Arctic Ghetto says:

republican hate fact says: “You mean like how the media”……No I mean like ” Can John, John do a tummy tuck so I can fasten his Depends?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:54 am
rockyroad says:

Yes, the Board of Directors thought that it would be better for SMU to go down than to have its own finances scrutinized . . . Such scrutiny could lead to wide-spread investigations, including those of people like the Bushes, the Clintons and McCains.

At that time, a recent Supreme Court case found that the coach of the University of Oklahoma had such extraordinary hearing that while lounging beneath an oak tree, he was able to hear a stock tip that made him millions.

Time for a change. . . it should begin with the miracle of Hillary’s Whitewater windfall and end with Bush’s presidential library and “think tank” at SMU.

Stop the nonsense!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Keith says:

The Clintons lost money in Whitewater. There was no windfall. It was investigated for eight years! I wish we had the same amount of investigations into what Reagan and the Bushes have wrought!
May 6th, 2008 at 3:52 am
rockyroad says:

The Clintons made more than a 1,000% on Whitewater in less than a week. Get your facts straight.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:14 am
rockyroad says:

D”avid Hale, the source of criminal allegations against President Clinton in the Whitewater affair, claimed in November 1993 that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, pressured him to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal . . . A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation did result in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged. Bill Clinton’s Lt. Governor, Jim Guy Tucker, was also convicted and served time in prison for his role in the fraud. Susan McDougal later served time in prison for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions relating to then-Gov. Clinton’s role in Whitewater.

So Hillary is wacked about Obama’s association with Rev. Wright. Go figure.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:21 am
rockyroad says:

After the death of Vince Foster in July of 1993, chief White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum removed documents, some of them concerning the Whitewater Development Corporation, from Foster’s office and gave them to Margaret Williams, Chief of Staff to the First Lady.

McDougel died in prison. “Ultimately the Clintons were never charged, but 14 other persons were convicted of more than 40 crimes, including a sitting Governor who was removed from office.”
May 6th, 2008 at 4:32 am
rockyroad says:

The deaths of Foster and McDougel are but a few in a long line of deceased Clinton “friends.” Don’t think that the
Republicans won’t have a field day with the remainder.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Doc Rock says:

Despite the media’s obvious biases, the real problem with the major media, in my opinion, is that they don’t deal with real/important issues and tend to dwell on puffball stuff and People magazine-type personality crap!
May 6th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Kay says:

Stop obliterating yourself!
By Reza Fiyouzat
Online Journal Contributing Writer

May 6, 2008, 00:18

Email this article
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If it was unclear to most American observers of the U.S. presidential elections, it was clear to most Middle Easterners, of whom I am one. I am talking about the recently solved mystery about what one Democratic candidate, Hilary Clinton, would ultimately be willing to do to us Middle Easterners of the Iranian variety, if elected.

I get the feeling that Barak Obama would likely do the same to us, but he’s coy about it, and keeps that kind of talk for special audiences only: Jewish ones, especially when the audience is packed by the AIPAC.

Now, in case you thought Clinton was only talking about obliterating Iran, you are wrong.

When a person running for a U.S. national office, any person, supports the ‘war on terror’, that person is also supporting the loss of civil liberties for the citizens of the U.S. He or she supports the suspension of habeas corpus (have you heard a single comment on that topic this election year? Not likely!). The same person supports the exorbitant theft of people’s money (taxes) and the hand-over of the same money to the financial-military-oil complex currently running the major levers of power in the U.S.

The same candidate supports the loss of all money for education, healthcare and all other needs of the working classes in the U.S., the very people who create all the wealth and provide all the services. The same candidate also supports all the international institutions created for the flow of the so-called Free Trade, which in fact should be called the absolute freedom, with no discrimination, of capital to do as it wishes to all; which, in turn, means the candidate will do nothing to stop the loss of jobs to cheaper labor markets, as well as the loss of purchasing power of the people in the U.S.; nor will the said candidate do anything to address poverty besetting 50 million people in the U.S., more to be added to these ranks as you read this.

So, when a desperate candidate, out of frustration and the need to show how tough s/he can be, announces s/he is willing and ready to obliterate a people far way across the globe, you can bet your sweet tooth that s/he will not hesitate a second to continue obliterating YOU, the American voter!

In fact, bet that the very candidate is so assured of your obliteration that s/he sees no problem enunciating, out loud and unashamed, the most horrid, the most vicious, the most barbaric thoughts; assured that none of the stench, the ugliness or the absurdity will be sensed, nor any emotional shocks caused for a second, thanks to the corporate media.

To sum up: when a political candidate running for national office says to your face that s/he does not give a flying duck about your education, your health, your jobs, your life or those of your children’s and grandkids’, you are obliterated!

A small example: I am an educator by day (and most of the night, which is what it takes to be an educator). We learned recently that teachers lost a ‘privilege’ previously available, which was the permission to deduct up to $250 a year on our taxes for work-related expenses such as teaching materials (needed to do one’s job as a teacher). We can no longer deduct that paltry sum (which, to us lesser earners is not that paltry). And why? California budget cuts. Now, as professionals go, we occupy pretty much the bottom of the bottom rungs of all trades; lower than any carpenter, plumber, lower than a lot of wait staff and bartenders, way lower than accountants, and I hear even lower than some sanitary workers — God bless them. Even so, a lot of us pay out of pocket for tons of things we need to use in our work with our students.

For all the money we spend throughout the year, a measly $250 could be deducted previously. Not any more! Why? Because the war must continue. In most likelihood, the students who would benefit from such teachers’ expenditures are students in ill-funded schools, where the teachers have more need to reach into their own pockets (because the school isn’t providing the funds) to provide the needed things for their lessons.

Or take another example: as noted by Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association and professor of history at Cal State Los Angeles, in a letter to editors published at New York Times, “Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes a 10 percent across-the-board cut in state financing that would leave our state university $386 million deeper in the hole” (March 1, 2008).

The amount ’saved’ by the government through denying the teachers a miserly tax write off, or the amount saved by cutting the California education budget by 10 percent could easily have been provided by suspending the war mongering for a few weeks. This is how wars of aggression obliterate people at home.

Clearly there is no shortage of money given by the American people to the government. The war mongers have no problem getting funded and would not let go of a penny of their budget (people’s taxes), even though the military budget of this country equals (or may in fact exceed) the combined military budgets of ALL other countries on this planet.

So, let’s not help the ruling class obliterate us any more. Let’s use this election year to get a tally of our own numbers and strength. Let’s see how many of us there really are! What is our actually existing numbers? Does anybody (besides the NSA and the CIA) know that number? What is the point of wasting votes by voting for establishment candidates? Whichever of the three establishment candidates gets into the White House, the fact and the ferocity of the Empire will continue unabated.

As you are right now, you are not represented. Period. Not only that, you are actively disenfranchised as you vote!

Just as you vote that once every two or four years, and just as you exit the polling station to go back to cook some food, pick up your kids from school, or go back to the office or the factory or the barracks, as you retreat to you ‘private life’ (very little of which is truly private, and a majority of which is decided in the public realm of the political); as you deliver your full and complete political representational trust into a closed fist that then punches all life out of you and yours; you are obliterated!

You do not exist, except in so far as you grease the wheels of capital accumulation and migration. You can do your best and work your life away, but politically you count as zero. Until you start complaining, of course. Then the politicos pretend they ‘hear you,’ just to shut you up. But how often has your mere complaining changed things?

Every time you vote and disappear behind the private life’s curtain, not bothering to demand anything for the political capital you hand over, you are obliterated a little bit more.

Every time you hand your tax money to the state and don’t get to dictate to them how to spend your money on you YOUR needs, you are obliterated.

Every time you vote using a machine that leaves no paper trails, you are obliterated.

Stop obliterating yourself!

This election year, let’s say ‘NO MORE!’ Say, ‘Ya Basta!’ Say, ‘Screw this stupidity!’ Let’s act like Wobblies would, like Yippies would, like any decent thinking human would, and turn the tables on them. Let’s come together and use this so-called democratic moment and turn it around.

In some countries elections are boycotted because the elections are so violently eschewed that to participate in them is to make an open fool of oneself. In the U.S., however, voting ‘irregularities’ are not accompanied by open violence (unless you are black, and, until recent history, your voting was inhibited by lynching, and later still your votes were simply counted very inaccurately, when counted at all).

In this country, about half of the population has been boycotting the elections for the last 40 years: on average, voter turnout for federal elections since 1968 has been 46.3 percent (see: National Voter Turnout In Federal Elections: 1960–2006 and do the math yourself). So, obviously a majority of the population has already marked the legislature and the executive branches as beyond their reach; boycott by default.

But to simply withdraw from the legislative branch is a huge capitulation; it may seem revolutionary to some, but such ‘revolutionaries’ would have to explain the recent Maoist victories in the Nepalese legislature in some dark, ‘reformist’ light (not in the bright revolutionary light they are currently praised); or else they must go looking for explanations for their own behavior for the past few decades.

On the other hand (and to repeat), caution is absolutely necessary on the really capitulatory side. Forget about anybody like Michael Moore’s pronouncements of support for Obama, or Medea Benjamin, Hollywood celebs, or any others who propagandize in favor of anything to do with supporting the Democrats. Get your own legislative seats: Fight for these seats, don’t just give them away!

All Democrats are on record supporting the destruction of other countries if need be (the ‘need’ of the U.S. ruling class, that is). That means they are willing, and will be able, to obliterate the U.S. citizens, too. All Democrats will continue to use the public funds provided by the citizens of the U.S. to oppose the wishes of the people of the U.S. to the same degree as the Republicans do right now. They already have been doing that.

So, why doesn’t the U.S. Left take inventory of its numbers at least? Here is a perfectly legal and available way of finding out how many of us there really are. If you are going to vote at all, vote Nader or McKinney, vote together and let’s get past that federal-money-bringing 5 percent point; it’s our money: let’s take it back!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Kay says:

I’m not a Republican.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:48 am
5th Estate says:

Given that Republican House majority intitiated and ran all the investigations of Whitewater/the troopers/murder/drug smuggling/Foster) and FOUND NOTHING, RockyRoad here is must believe that the Republicans are all incompetent and/or liars.

Ironic, no?
May 6th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Kay says:

of course, I think the Media right now isn’t doing it’s job anyways. So much for the 4th Estate. If the current Corporate Controlled media was doing it’s job to begin with it would have exposed 9/11 as an inside job. Everything we are going through right now is a result of this cover-up.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:59 am
5th Estate says:

anymouse19

pretty fair comment, except that when McCain was still competing with Romney and/or Huckabee NONE of them were treated the way Obama and Clinton had been–especially not McCain. How often were ANY of them asked about the absence of their flag-pins, for instance? How often was McCain asked about his finances (and why is that question still not being asked?).Why was it okay for McCain to sing “bomb-Iran” but when Hillary responds matter-of-factly that the result of an Iranian nuclear strike on Israel would be the obliteration of Iran, even the left gets hysterical?
May 6th, 2008 at 9:07 am
5th Estate says:

anymouse19…

On the CLintons, they found nothing on the CLINTONS, they were not party to the embezzelements conspoiracy etc.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:10 am
shoeless says:

Considering that reporters like the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray say Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will have to “wait” until after the Democratic primary to “get his fair share of scrutiny,”

Sure. We are still waiting for them to give George W. Bush his “his fair share of scrutiny,”
May 6th, 2008 at 10:06 am
shoeless says:

anymouse19 Says:

McCain has already tied up his nomination and is not nearly as much in the spotlight at the moment.

Good thing for him, considering he is flip flopping like a dying fish, consorting with insane fundamentalist preachers and accidently admitting we invaded Iraq for oil.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Kay says:

please read : (regarding Obama)

http://www.infowars.com/?p=1936
May 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am
NOLIESPLEASE says:

For the truth http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com . You will see why the media is the way it is.

What are we going to do ? This documentory will really make you think.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Keith says:

from wikipedia:

The Clintons lost between $37,000 and $69,000 on their Whitewater investment,[16]

……This allegation by Hale was questionable, as Hale had not mentioned Clinton in reference to this loan during testimony in the original FBI investigation of the failure of Madison Guaranty in 1989. Hale also had a history of creating dummy companies, then looting federal funds, such as SBA loans, from them, and allowing them to fail. Only after coming under indictment in 1993 for charges in just such a scheme did Hale make allegations against Clinton.[2

“…the Clintons themselves were never charged”

—————————————

There were three investigations into Vince Foster’s death–each one carried out by enemies of the Clintons and each one saying the same thing: that it was suicide and it was committed in the park where he was found. This pretty much begs the question as to why there were three. Their enemies wanted constant investigations even when there was no wrongdoing. How does Nannygate, Travelgate, and Filegate compare to Iran-Contra, October Surprise, Iraqgate, The Niger Document, Downing Street Memo, the arming of bin Laden, the Panama Deception, Harken insider trading, BCCI, and the general 935 recorded lies taking us into the Iraq Fiasco?
May 6th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Keith says:

rockyroad Says:
The Clintons made more than a 1,000% on Whitewater in less than a week. Get your facts straight.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:14 am

TOTALLY, UTTERLY B.S.!!!
May 6th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Jack08 says:

Clinton takes Indiana by a ‘razor’ and Obama wins North Carolina by a huge margin. Nevertheless, Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia are still to come.

The Democratic race for nomination is still very much alive – and most likely to be decided by superdelegates

If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support Clinton or Obama

If you haven’t done so yet, please write a message to each of your state’s superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com

Obama Supporters:

Sending a note to current Obama supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Clinton supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Obama, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Obama. It’s that easy…

Clinton Supporters too …. !

It takes a moment, but what’s a few minutes now worth to get Clinton in office?! Those are really worth !

Sending a note to current Clinton supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Obama supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Clinton, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Clinton. It’s that easy…
May 9th, 2008 at 8:03 am

Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.

Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.

39 Responses to “Poll: More people think the media have been ‘easier’ on McCain.”

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