We’ve often said that the media “protects” President Obama but this video from WIND radio host and Big Blogs contributor William Kelly shows this allegation literally.
Kelly, a Chicagoan, was there when Rahm Emmanuel was pressing the flesh, kissing babies, and greeting reporters. Emmanuel didn’t account for unassuming Kelly to fire off serious journalistic questions more pressing than the requisite “how’s it feel to be back?”
Kelly didn’t account for was the manner in which Chicago reporters behaved. Are these reporters or palace guards? In the video you see them physically move to shield Emmanuel from Kelly’s questioning, as though their backs alone would deflect the questions. Kelly is berated and shoved by mainstream media journalists, but the scene stealer is when CBS2’s Jay Levine (who has not responded to my requests for comment) screams at Kelly, “Let him finish or I’m gonna deck you!”
Fireworks begin at about the 1:00 mark:
Who needs bodyguards with media like CBS2’s Jay Levine and the local ABC guy?
From Kelly’s release:
After challenging Emanuel on-camera about questions on his residency and the failed $800 billion stimulus he spearheaded as White House Chief of Staff, CBS2’s reporter Jay Levine told Kelly he was going “to deck him”[...] ABC7 political reporter Charles Thomas told Kelly to “go away.” “This is the problem. Journalists have lost their objectivity,” said Kelly. “How can we rely on them to report the facts? People have lost faith in the media and with the actions of reporters like these, it’s not hard to see why.”The video of Kelly’s encounter and the Chicago media’s response will be released today.[...]Critics like Kelly have charged that as White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel directed stimulus funds to payback political cronies and structuring programs for Wall Street’s benefit. “Rahm was responsible for the failed stimulus that has exploded the deficit,” remarks Kelly. “In his own words, he ‘never let a good crisis go to waste.’ Unfortunately, for America, that took the form of enriching his Wall Street friends who made him a millionaire in the 1990s. “If that’s success, he can keep it. Chicago deserves better than Rahm Emanuel.”[...]Kelly says that during Emanuel’s White House tenure, Wall Street won and Main Street lost. “Wall Street got its guarantees and low interest rates. Rahm’s friends at Goldman Sachs made $12 billion a year after the bailout,” said Kelly. “He orchestrated President Obama’s failed $800 billion stimulus that has saddled taxpayers with debt and all they received in return is 9.5% unemployment. That’s nothing for Rahm to be proud of. That’s called failure.”
This goes beyond objectivity; this is case of media aggressively protecting their investment.
I’ve said before that during the last election MSM placed the last of its chips on the Obama administration. They invested the last of their credibility into Washington, into Democrat success and have gone out of their way to present positive coverage of the President and his policy decisions.
From the Center for Media and Public Affairs:
“For whatever reason, the media are portraying Barack Obama as a better choice for president than John McCain,” said Robert Lichter, a George Mason University professor and head of the center.
Shorenstein attached several studies to the memo indicating the press had given more favorable coverage to Obama than to Clinton, and urged activists to forward the material to friends and voters and to complain to reporters.
Half of Americans think the press is trying to help Sen. Barack Obama win the presidential election, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports.In an automated survey of 1000 likely voters, Rasmussen found that 49 percent of respondents believed reporters would favor Obama in their coverage this fall, compared with just 14 percent who expected them to boost Sen. John McCain. The number of Americans who see pro-Obama bias in the press has increased by five percent in the last month.
Knowing this, is it any surprise that Americans no longer have confidence in media?
What we see in this video from Levine and the other local reporters (aside from poseur elitism; their assumption that the better the water-carrier for the administration, the more the “journalist”) is the proverbial people’s watchdog jump into the lap of the very subject against which they’ve been entrusted to guard. The murder of objectivity and the blurring of duty, if you will. If only Levine and co. approached the people with the same protective instinct seen in their approach to Obama’s right-hand man.
We’ll follow up on this story with a comment, or refusal to comment, from CBS2. Stay tuned.
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