No surprise to see ABC give platform to Obama — but not to his critics - baltimoresun.com

No surprise to see ABC give platform to Obama — but not to his critics - baltimoresun.com

What former CBS news correspondent Bernard Goldberg identified in the title of his recent book, A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media, has not cooled in the slightest.

Not since John Fitzgerald Kennedy wowed the press with his looks and charm and the elegance of his wife, Jackie, has a president been so widely idolized by those members of the Fourth Estate who are supposed to report with some objectivity on presidential policies and promises. This is not a healthy thing. We are not some backward nation worshiping a Dear Leader - are we? Well, are we?



There's much buzz this week about the decision of ABC News to air a special edition of its World News program June 24 from the White House. Charlie Gibson will anchor the news from the Blue Room in a program described by the network as a special town hall meeting on health care. Republicans (remember them?) are very upset about this, maybe because their views on health care reform (whatever they might be) are being left out of this telecast. They think having the president's views amplified on television without opposition is pretty chilling.

Ken McKay of the Republican National Committee wrote to the head of ABC News to complain. He said, "Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are included. Our request was rejected." Further, he said, "I am concerned that this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democratic agenda."

Well, yeah. Ken wasn't born yesterday. ABC honchos are insulted by such a scurrilous take on their enterprise, insisting that their people will be in charge of picking the folks in the audience and who will be allowed to ask what of Mr. Obama and will be very objective about it. See, that'll guarantee fairness, won't it? The network says this White House appearance was arranged on its own initiative, suggesting to the gullible that longtime ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass' current job as the director of communications at the White House Office of Health Reform played no part in this. OK, it was mere coincidence.

Cue the laughter - though this isn't really a laughing matter, because the reform of health care was supposed to be, and should be, a bipartisan exercise. Even though the Republican Party rendered itself at least temporarily irrelevant by its performance post-2000, the fact is that Barack Obama is not president of the United States by acclamation. At least 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservatives, and their views should play a part in the discussion about what to do about the unsustainable skyrocketing costs of medical care in their country.

That ABC thinks it kosher to broadcast a program from the White House of teleprompted comments from Barack Obama and vetted questions from a handpicked audience and to exclude opposite views speaks volumes about media bias. To those of us on the political right, this comes as no great surprise. We're used to being defamed, decried, ignored and belittled by the mainstream media that we despise in return because of their bias against our "retrograde" beliefs and against us.

But we are outraged. We oppose the direction of our government toward ever more control over our lives. We know that Barack Obama is not The One but rather an ambitious, charismatic politician who won the big prize. We know that society is not perfectible. We know that we have spent ourselves into bankruptcy. We worry about the future facing our children and their children.

Unlike the people at ABC, we are not in a slobbering love affair with our current White House Occupant and are suspicious of all who hold great power.