Recent campaign coverage has scrutinized the ideological positioning of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with corporate media reporting that he has shifted toward the center on numerous issues in order to improve his chances in the November election. While some of the "flip-flops" are debatable--with media sometimes treating longtime Obama positions as new stances--what is undeniable is that for years corporate media have advised Democratic candidates to make just this sort of ideological shift (Extra!, 9/92, 1-2/95; Extra! Update, 10/00; Extra!, 7-8/06). The shifts cited by media included clear examples of Obama switching to a more rightward position, such as [...]
Jul
11
2008
Robert Dreyfuss on Obama's foreign policy, Amanda Marcotte on 'pregnancy pact' story
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Barack Obama's image as a harbinger of change has many hoping his election will bring change in foreign policy. He certainly differs from George Bush on the need for diplomacy. But what about issues such as the projection of American power and so-called humanitarian intervention? Does Obama's thinking really represent a departure from, say, Bill Clinton's views, or from the bipartisan thinking of the Cold War period? We'll talk to journalist Robert Dreyfuss about his Nation magazine report, "Obama's Evolving Foreign Policy." Also on CounterSpin today, a story that proved too good to be [...]
Jul
01
2008
Obama the Snob?
Hanging the ‘elitist’ label on another Democratic candidate
By Peter Hart
It’s safe to assume that Barack Obama knew he could expect certain lines of attack when he decided to run for president: whispers about his religious beliefs, for example, or questions regarding his patriotism. And sure enough, those issues came up almost as soon as the campaign started. But it’s difficult to imagine that Obama—whose one grandfather was a high-school dropout and the other a colonial servant—expected to fend off the accusation that he is “elitist.” Corporate media coverage of political campaigns often rests on certain storylines, though, that don’t necessarily bear any relationship to reality—Al Gore the exaggerator vs. [...]
Jul
01
2008
Sidebar: The Most Liberal Senator?
[Note: This is a sidebar to "Obama the Snob?: Hanging the 'elitist' label on another Democratic candidate"] In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was crowned by an influential Beltway publication with an unexpected designation: He was, according to its calculation, the most liberal member of the Senate (National Journal, 2/28/04). The ranking was endlessly trumpeted by Republican spokespeople. Almost four years later, the soon-to-be Democratic presidential candidate had the same label attached to his record—by the same publication. On January 31, 2008, the National Journal’s annual ranking of senators placed Barack Obama as the furthest left Senate [...]
Jun
27
2008
John K. Wilson on Obama and public financing, Aziz Huq on FISA 'compromise'
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Barack Obama flip-flops on public financing. The media was in an uproar over the Democratic presidential candidate's decision to forego public funding for the general election—a sign to many pundits that Obama's reformer rhetoric is an illusion. But was it actually a flip-flop? Writer John K. Wilson doesn't think so. He'll join us to explain. Also on CounterSpin today, some in the press corps say that the new surveillance law making its way through Congress is a good deal, not just for the telecom companies that it lets off the hook for helping the [...]
May
16
2008
Bill Fletcher on Wright and Obama, Andy Worthington on Guantánamo
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: race, Wright and Barack Obama. You might have been tempted to think that the controversy over Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright ended back when Obama gave a long speech on race and his long association with Wright's church. Or maybe you figured that when Obama gave another set of more forceful comments denouncing Wright, that might be the last we heard of all that. But the discussion of race in the Democratic primaries would suggest that there's plenty more Rev. Wright chatter to come. Bill Fletcher will join us to share his thoughts [...]
Apr
16
2008
Media Double Standard on Fundraising Promises
Challenging Obama, ignoring McCain's hypocrisy
National media have echoed presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain's criticism of Democratic candidate Barack Obama for failing to promise to participate in the public financing program for the general election--even though McCain's campaign has said it may not participate in the program either. At issue is whether Obama will participate in the public financing program for the general election. Under that system, each campaign would be limited to spending about $84 million. Several media outlets have criticized Obama for seeming to back away from his apparent promise to use public financing. The New York Times (2/28/08) called it a [...]
Mar
28
2008
Dean Baker on the financial crisis, Keith Poole on Voteview
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The crisis in the U.S. housing market is big news, but media coverage of what to do about it seems to feature the same experts and consequently the same sorts of ideas that created the problem in the first place. What ways forward are we not hearing about? And what should progressives make of what could be a real "teachable moment" about the workings of the U.S. economy? We'll hear from economist Dean Baker from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Also on the show: Recent stories in the New York Times and [...]
