Abrams, MSNBC on-air: "D.C. media" invented Democratic race war

[DeepModem Mom]

Dan Abrams blames "race-baiting, gotcha politics" on the part of the press for creation of the Democratic race war story. Quotes have been taken out of context by the press, he says, in order to create a story. He said the press is not interested in stories based on issues -- the economy, for example -- so they create stories of conflict, stories like this one.

Abrams showed video of Bill Clinton's entire "fairy tale" comment, making it clear that the remark was about Obama's early Iraq stand, not his campaign. In the atmosphere, created by the press, that followed, he said Hillary's comment about Martin Luther King was "misinterpreted." What she said was that Presidents must implement policy. (Craig Crawford just said to another commentator, "Do you think Hillary Clinton is so dumb that she would denigrate Martin Luther King" before the South Carolina primary?)

Abrams said Robert Johnson's comments referencing Obama's youthful drug use were "ill advised" -- but not the comments of "a part of Clinton's campaign."

He accused the press of creating a story for its own use.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And now they're all hollering at each other.

Craig Crawford is about to explode.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I was trying to get Abrams' comments into type, and couldn't listen as closely...

as I would have liked to the conversation that followed. I DID hear Craig Crawford, though.

[rodeodance]

3. Thanks very much for the details as I am not able to watch

[Barack_America]

4. Anything to avoid talking about real issues.

Real issues are boring and depressing. :eyes:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I forgot! That's what Abrams said at the beginning. Like the economy. Thank you!

I edited that point into the OP.

[Captain Hilts]

5. And the campaigns react as if on cue. First from Novak's column... nt

[indimuse]

7. thanks for the info.

sanity...yeah..

[Cha]

8. Well, if the m$$$m started it then

Obama finished it with a Class Act.

[durrrty libby]

10. No he didn't. He let the distortions( per Abrams) stew

No high road there. None. Zip. Nada

[Cha]

11. Lying again to prop up hillary cause

her fans are helping her so much.

[durrrty libby]

12. Dan Abrams said all the suckers got played by the media.

He's right. The media takes things out of context and all the clowns

with no comprehension skills lap it up:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[comradebillyboy]

9. the more I see Dan Abrams the more I like him nt

[annabanana]

14. He had definitely gotten on the ball lately!

His dad, Floyd Abrams is a highly respected Constitutional Lawyer. I expect he is pleased to see his kid doing this instead of the police blotter beat..

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. I think there's some truth in that - but MSNBC has been guilty too

I think the networks in their program development meetings among executives most likely discuss their desire to inject drama and conflict into their news coverage. This is mainly infotainment in this day and age, after all. It boosts ratings by promoting controversy. They want a boxing match. It might be one of the principal reasons they have tried to exclude some of the candidates like Kucinich because they don't want to dilute the back and forth aggression by having someone actually address issues.

But I don't like the way Abrams cut off mention of any other examples of the ugly commentary that has gone on in the respective campaigns. He tried to frame the exact debate he wanted to stage, regarding race, and exclude all other references. The media has been doing this out-of-context sound bite coverage with incident-after-incident, not only with regard to the Martin Luther King and "fairy tale" comments but with many others. The list is getting long.

Abrams is not accusing the media of being racist. He's saying they are exploiting race to promote conflict, which raises viewership. But he then excludes all talk about other incidents, such as references by the Clinton campaign to Obama's drug use or his alleged Islamic ties. If Abrams really believed that this was the media attempt to just promote conflict, then he would entertain discussion about other incidents. By framing the issue so tightly with regard to race, Abrams is himself making race the issue. The issue for the media is not race, it's getting our blood up in order to increase ratings.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Indeed, it is a much larger problem than this particular story.

The media does want a horse race, a conflict, whatever -- even if to the detriment of the democratic process, which they are supposed to have a part in in our system. The Founders gave them special protection -- they're supposed to inform the citizenry.

Thanks for your post! As I read it, my mind kept clicking, "Tweety, Tweety..." He's at the forefront of this kind of stuff.

[waiting for hope]

16. I watched that -

and how they went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.

BTW - how are those ratings there Dan?

[durrrty libby]

17. Dan was great. The truth is a beautiful thing

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Just noting that Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were fanning the racial flames again this a.m.

on MSNBC, in interviews with Senator McCaskill and Mike Barnicle (they both tried to steer the talk in a different direction).

[Cameron27]

19. Dan Abrams has been great lately.

K&R

[Barack_America]

20. Except when he's reporting "news" from unsourced gossip columns...

...that just happen to be owned by Murdoch...without fact-checking and learning that the said "news" has already been thoroughly debunked.

Yeah...he's a great "reporter". :eyes:

[Beacool]

21. Thank goodness for Dan Abrams!!!

He and KO are the only two that I can tolerate from MSNBC. They have become worse than FOX. You know that Tweety has finally lost it when O"Reilly, of all people, sticks up for Hillary and says that in years past Matthews would have been fired for his constant biased attacks on Hillary (he was referring specifically to Tweety's comments about hillary becoming a senator thanks to Bill's cheating).