Media: How Dare Republicans Mention the Obama Administration's Behavior in the Obama Administration's Scandals

Apparently we're allowed to discuss the Obama Administration's scandals only if we stick to the Approved DNC Playbook of pretending this was all done by a few bad-apple rogue operatives, a couple of front-line low-level employees.

Jay Carney lies to the press and the nation every day; Darryl Issa calls him a liar. Who's to say which is worse?

In the last post I noted it's a standard political play for politicians to plant a story in the press, and then turn to the American people and say "Look at what the independent, objective press is saying!"

And so: On Friday, the DNC press secretary issued this missive:

Memorandum

To: Interested Parties
From: Michael Czin, DNC National Press Secretary
Date: May 31, 2013
Subj: The Month of GOP Overreach

Blocking the President’s policies for purely political reasons has always been the top priority of Congressional Republicans, but in the last month they’ve really pushed the envelope – even for them. There’s one word that best describes the GOP’s efforts in May: overreach.

Emphasis in original -- and then the same word, "overreach," is hypnotically bolded in subsequent mentions in the document. Mostly they cite the media's concern trolling that the RNC may overreach... in the future.

But now the DNC says that the RNC has overreached, and lo! What lovely fruits blossom from this fecund seed:

I disagree with Allah here. Oh, he's right, but he's wrong.

Some people on Twitter are trying to draw a straight line from Friday’s DNC memo to today’s overreachapalooza but I’m skeptical. Why assume that like-minded reporters need written prompting from the DNC to start pushing this? They’re liberals exasperated by a flurry of scandals on a Democratic president’s watch; they’ll start whining about Republican “overreach” eventually whether they’re lobbied to do so or not. Frankly, I doubt even sympathetic media people pay attention to the parties’ dreary official talking points. If anything they’ve read has inspired them to push this, it’s more likely to be the lefty blogs they consume than some party apparatchik’s meme memo.

On that last point, that the media might have gotten the meme from the lefty blogs that they love, love, love, that might be true, but it's irrelevant; whether the leftist media takes its Meme Marching Orders from the grassroots of the leftist party or from the official organs of the leftist party is a bit moot.

But I do think the media may have actually "taken its orders" from this memo. The media is very butthurt about these scandals -- they're butthurt as partisans, and they're butthurt professionally, as they've vouched up and down the line for the singular perfection of one Barack Hussein Obama. Politically and personally, they want to push back against these narratives. They want their Old Narratives back.

@justkarl linked National Journal's "objective" reporter Ron Fourier confessing as much:

“You and others have said that no one in the White House knew about IRS actions before getting the heads up on the inspector general's report last month,” George Stephanopoulos told senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday. “Are you absolutely sure of that?”

“Yes,” Pfeiffer replied.

Do you believe him?

Knowing the consequences that would befall the Obama administration if the White House or Obama’s reelection campaign knew in real time that the IRS was targeting conservatives, I desperately want to believe Pfeiffer.

"I desperately want to believe him" in order that the Obama administration should not be damaged -- this is a confession of a rather strong emotional rooting interest in Obama.

Now, assuming Ron Fourier is representative of Butthurt Liberals everywhere (and I think this is a fair assumption), we have a bunch of emotionally-invested, emotionally-upset liberals -- really no different than Rachel Maddow viewers generally -- who are "desperate" for a way out of this. For a way to start "fighting back." For a way to start "changing the Narrative."

But there seems to be no way out -- it's like quicksand. Every step taken seems to sink them, and their Magic Boyfriend, deeper into the mire.

And now someone at the DNC throws out a rope, a rope which, if it appeared in a hack political cartoon, would be labled "PARTISAN LIFELINE."

And of course they all scramble for it. They wanted a partisan lifeline, whatever form that might take, and now they've been thrown one.

Of course they scramble for it. What else would a butthurt partisan do?

Whenever a team is knocked back on its heels, it's open to suggestions about how to proceed. The particulars of the suggestion aren't important. But psychology says that a shellshocked bunch will be very receptive for any possible offer of a New Strategy.

So the DNC offers just that. This isn't really a "Marching Order," of course. That's hyperbole. The press, who are almost all partisan liberals, is under no compulsion to obey orders issued from a partisan liberal press secretary.

But why wouldn't they? It's a welcome, optimistic plan and rallying cry from a fellow team-mate (and yes, Ron Fourier and all the rest are on the same team as the DNC press secretary, even if they falsely wear different colors), and they all have the same imperative in mind -- PROTECT OBAMA -- so it's only natural that one voice crying out to the desperate would spark the very action the voice suggests.

So yes, Allah's right that the partisan liberals of the media need no formal coordination and planning with the partisan liberals of the DNC and the White House.

But given that their goals are all precisely the same, and they mutually trust each other, why wouldn't the Rallying Cry from the DNC spark echoing Rallying Cries from the media?

posted by Ace at 05:19 PM

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