Sharron Angle admitted that she tries to manage press relations to receive favorable coverage, which is what every candidate tries to do.
Outrage! Shock! How Dare She!
And not just from the usual suspects.
I say:
How refreshing! Truth! More please!
Now Harry Reid would never make such a mistake. He’s too much the politician to tell the truth about his media strategy, such as why he is ducking and running from a debate with Angle (he’s “too busy” for several months).
Update: Some of the reactions are classic. Steve Benen, a flame thrower who almost never mentions Angle without putting “extremist” before her name, and who regularly regurgitates undigested Media Matters and Think Progress talking points, protests:
Sharron Angle said, on the record and on camera, that her campaign’s media strategy is built around the notion of manipulating news organizations, getting the questions Angle wants, so she can give the answers she wants, so the public will hear the news the way Angle wants it to be heard.
Because no candidate ever has done that before, particularly not our Dear President.
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Comments
Steve Benen said what...?
"I'm trying to imagine what the response on the right would be if President Obama said he needs independent news organizations to be his "friend," which is why he demands that reporters ask the questions he wants to answer "so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported."
Was he joking ?
"Because no candidate ever has done that before, particularly not our Dear President."
Hahahaha!!!! I was just listening to the Anita Dunn vid clip from her "chat" in the Dominican Republic where she let all the control-the-message secrets out on her handling of the Obama campaign! Heh. Reid is a snake – he wouldn't be able to tell the truth if he was reading it from a teleprompter! Go Sharron Angle!!!
"I'm trying to imagine what the response on the right would be if President Obama said he needs independent news organizations to be his "friend," which is why he demands that reporters ask the questions he wants to answer "so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported."
My reaction would be, "It's about time he admitted it!" After all, that is pretty much the arrangement which most Democrats and liberal figures enjoy today.
At least Sharron is not the leader of the free world, where an attitude like that can can cause so much more damage…
Now that I've looked over her comments, I can't say I think they are as sinister as people are making them out to be.
I think what she meant by 'friend' is not so much that they become allies in her winning the campaign, but that instead of playing gotcha and not allowing her to get her message across, they should allow her some leeway to speak and be more fair to her in the questions they ask. After all, the voters can't be well-informed on the candidates position if the media won't allow that position to be made clear and understood and also try to control the narrative at the same time. So in that loose and narrow sense, reporters should be *all* candidates 'friends' because that is the only way to ensure equal and fair treatment for all candidates and be "friends" with the public and to the idea of an open and clear process by allowing the populace to make up their own minds.
(Also, if a candidate has an issue that they want to be asked questions on, does that not mean that if elected they will focus on those issues? So isn't really in the public and the medias best interest for reporters to ask those questions and fine out what the answer is since the info that question and answer will reveal is so important?)
And I think by "the way we want it reported" all she meant was they want the media to report the news objectively, without bias and without the constant attempt to interpret and thus present an inaccurate and distorted version of what the candidate actually said and the candidates views. (It goes without saying that this type of abuse is primarily dished out to conservatives.) In other words, Sharron is merely saying "I wish you would report and record what I actually said, not what you *think* I said.) Isn't that the way we all want the news to be reported?
Personally, I've always found the media halo of contributing to an open political process risible. The media filter and distort that process through their bias, editorializing and distortions. They don't want politicians manipulating the public because that's THEIR job. They are the ones with the Pyongyang mindset, not Sharron Angle. An over-antagonistic press is just as dangerous and ruinous to a free and open society as an over-obeisant one is.
P.S. In regards to editorializing, I'm not saying news outlets shouldn't and can't engage in that, BUT there is a big difference between clearly separating what is reporting and what is editorializing and doing what the MSM does today which is to combine the two and present editorial as fact and thus destroy objective reporting. That's what Sharron Angle and me are against. Keep the reporting and the opinion separate and at least present both opinions on an issue or candidate in your editorial department.