It isn’t News if it’s Not Pro-Obama
Sad how some “news” outlets refuse to cover news unfavorable to Obama. Just pretend it isn’t there.
Case in point… the ridiculous advertisement posted by the pro-Obama PAC that clearly accuses Romney of being complicit in the death of a woman AND not caring.
The Premise
The basic premise of the ad is very sad, a man recounts that his steel plant was shut down by “Mitt Romney and Bain Capital”, leaving him and his family without insurance, then “a short time after that” his wife was diagnosed with cancer and died 22 days later. He then concludes…
“I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone. (dramatic chime) And I… Furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned.”
The Problem(s) with the Premise
Even if we ignore the fact that Romney left active management of Bain in 1999 to manage the Salt Lake Olympics… look at a few other problems with this narrative.
- The plant closed in 2001.
- The wife died 5 years later in 2006.
- The wife had her own health insurance from her own job when Soptic lost his.
The death of Mr. Soptic’s wife IS a tragedy
… but attributing it to Romney is beyond ludicrous, and frankly pimping this woman’s death out for a misleading political hack job is disgusting. Let me repeat, DISGUSTING.
Hard to imagine nobody thought the odd timeline…
… that debunks the premise would go unchallenged, so we can only guess it was intended to stick an unfavorable impression on the terminally impressionable types that pay little attention to facts. The Obama Campaign and administration just pointed their fingers at the PAC that produced it and pretended they had nothing to do with it and no knowledge of the details of Mr Soptic’s wife’s death.
Unfortunately, that has proven to be false
… as the tale was recorded previously on an Obama Campaign Conference call, with Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter (who denied knowledge) thanking him for recounting the tale. And as expected, the PAC that produced the ad is run by former deputy press secretary at the Obama White House, Bill Burton. Coordination between the PAC and the campaign is illegal, but in this case also rather obvious.
Notwithstanding Illegal PAC/Campaign Collusion, the Media will Sort it Out. Right?
Typically, NO. Even *supposedly* straight news shows cannot be depended on these days. Sure, FOX is hardcore right wing, but at least they will report. NBC and especially MSNBC are well known for their tendency to try to pretend anything anti-Obama just never happened. [See also “Fast and Furious”]
In this case most news outlets have grudgingly broken down and condemned the ad. ABC termed it “the single most outrageous ad of the campaign. Even CNN, no fan of the right, pointed out the glaring discrepancies in the timeline and called the ad… “a nasty and misleading Obama super PAC ad that ABC, CBS, and NBC entirely ignored as of Wednesday night.” NBC is the lone holdout in addressing this, preferring to pretend it never happened or isn’t “news”.
NBC Style Reporting
Obama could eat a puppy (again) and the NBC headline would be “President Protects Cats”.
Meanwhile, if Romney attends a dinner raising funds crippled children, if the story got covered at all the headline will be something like “Children Catch Romney Masticating in Public!”.
Seriously, even if you have nothing but the lowest expectations for the mainstream media today, somehow the players STILL underperform.
Rob Jones for President 
Unfortunately, Rob, between declining educational standards that leave much of the American public functionally illiterate, and the astounding level of apathy and complacency in the voting public, even if the ad had shown the actual timeline at the bottom of the screen, very few would have had both the initiative and the ability to read it.
And most that DID, would probably not have allowed themselves to give it serious consideration.
Another great post, by the way! ;)
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