Nattering Nabobs: The GOP's Endless Assault Against the Media

In the 1992 presidential race, President George H. W. Bush attacked the media as his campaign was sinking fast against Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas. "Annoy the Media: Re-elect Bush" became a regular bumper sticker on the cars of Republicans. While Bush eased off on the sloganeering later, he helped foster a toxic atmosphere conducive to those who love to hate the press.

While assaulting the press, the Republican attack dogs conveniently forgot that Clinton himself was the focus of intense press scrutiny during the Democratic primaries. His draft status and womanizing was a big problem and the Clinton campaign groused about the press intrusion. Not a peep out of Republicans who loved it.

In fact, the GOP feasting on the media goes back at least to the Nixon-Agnew administration when, on Sept. 11, 1970—38 years ago this week—Vice President Spiro Agnew targeted the press as "negative nabobs of negativism." Agnew also said that the nabobs were the "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."

Now, in the current campaign, the Republicans seem to be gearing up for another blitzkrieg on the media. Party strategists in St. Paul were screaming about press inquiries in Alaska about Gov. Sarah Palin's brief political career.

It became apparent that the vetting process of Palin was woefully inadequate for a little-known woman about to be nominated for a position a heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain's pick was a surprise to even most Republicans, thus reporters scrambled to learn more about her.

"The media" should apologize, demanded some of McCain's allies at the GOP convention. Did they mean all of us from a remote blogger to the New York Times editorial board to the Palin-boosters at Fox News should issue a mea culpa because the website Daily Kos raised a wild and false accusation about Palin's 17-year-old daughter and her own 4-month-old baby?

With the advent of 24-7 cable television, bloggers on the right and left, national and local talk show hosts largely on the right, news magazines and periodicals, daily and weekly newspapers, and network television, the "media" is hardly a monolith. But it still represents an easy target for a politician hoping for an angry response from a party's base voters.

The family asked for privacy into their family affairs and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, agreed quickly on that point. But then over the next two days, the Palins and John McCain exploited the family by bringing them all (including the boy friend who had impregnated 17-year old Bristol) out on the platform and in the nearby convention floor—from the zone of privacy into the spotlight. Yes, it is traditional to bring family on-stage during the convention, but Palin bringing the family out twice, including the baby late at night, was way over the line. All this while privacy was demanded.

It was hypocrisy and exploitation—and it wasn't even subtle.

Such talk is especially galling coming from the John McCain camp. McCain has long enjoyed a reputation of being a pet of the press. In fact, his GOP rivals in the primaries complained that reporters were too chummy with him on his "Straight Talk Express" bus. He even famously referred to the media as his "base."

Let's face facts: The media will always be a convenient target. Many consumers of newspapers, the Internet, and TV blame the press for bringing bad news to them. The press certainly does, and should, dig into government activity at all levels. At times, it is the only watchdog for the public. Of course, the press makes mistakes and should answer to them.

But without press perseverance, we would not have known about Watergate, Clinton's sexual escapades, or George W. Bush's secretive maneuvering on the war in Iraq and other scandals in this administration.

It is amusing, too, to see Karl Rove, now a newspaper columnist and TV analyst, as a part of that hated media. Throughout Rove's career as a political consultant, he was eager to attack the media when it served his purpose. As one who despised Rove's tactics, I'm ashamed to count him as one of us now.

In the next eight weeks, voters should brace themselves for more wild accusations against the collective press. Such charges may make nifty applause lines, but they're not worth much more than that.