In sports it's called "working the refs." An outraged coach rails against the referees, constantly accusing them of bad calls. Keep it up and maybe the refs will compensate, giving your team the benefit of the doubt on succeeding calls.
Republicans and conservatives have perfected "working the refs." They have long insisted and cried that the media are liberal. That's just plain eyewash. But if a canard is repeated often enough without being refuted, it becomes accepted as "truth."
The latest Republican incarnation of working the refs is Donald Trump's constant whining that the "liberal media" are against him. "Unfair, the system is rigged," he cries.
The poor baby. Here we have the self-proclaimed winner, the smart operator who has mastered the tax system, the financial system and all that goes with it, claiming to be smarter than everyone else. Now he's tacitly admitting he's not winning. But it's not his fault, he insists - the cards are stacked against him.
Sometimes a comedy spoof nails it more accurately than journalists who are supposed to cover this stuff. The recent "Saturday Night Live" program featured a fictitious Donald Trump proclaiming, "The media is so unfair to me - they put on television everything I have said and done."
That pretty much says it all - The Donald wants it both ways. With his television background he has mastered the art of dominating the media. Using the media, he vanquished his hapless Republican opponents who failed to live up to the "talented bench" myth the Republican National Committee hailed them to be.
After quickly dispatching Wisconsin's "flash in the pan," Gov. Walker, and eventually sending the rest of that "talented bench" back to their rooms, Trump continues to insult his opponents and dominate the media with headline-grabbing controversial statements. When these statements dominate the conversation and the full impact becomes apparent, it is the media that is to blame for any backlash. Never mind that it is Trump's own statements that are being repeated.
He wants it both ways and is working the refs - that unfair liberal media is against him.
The media are not guiltless; they, too, want it both ways. The commercial media - here, I'm referring mainly to the broadcast media, the networks and cable channels - hold ratings and profits as their number one goal. They waxed fat on the viewership enhanced by the Trump phenomenon. A controversial, unique candidate who excited a constituency newly interested in politics was good for the commercial media, especially as long as he was not seen as a serious candidate - another "flash in the pan," they thought, though one more lasting and more attractive to fellow Republicans and the media than Gov. Walker.
But now Trump is seen as serious. His antics, past and present, are under the microscope. Formerly blase media celebrities are taking a harder look. Maybe his threats of lawsuits against inquisitive reporters aren't so desirable after all, either for the media or the nation at large.
Then there is the print media and the endorsements of Secretary Clinton by all but a very few smaller newspapers. The Dallas Morning News, not having endorsed a Democrat since FDR in 1944, and the Arizona Republic, never in their history having endorsed a Democrat, is significant - these are not liberal rags that are ostensibly biased against Republicans. Trump's treatment of reporters during his campaign gives one pause on how he would treat inquisitive, not to mention hostile, reporters if he were President.
So Trump is resorting to the time-honored Republican tactic of working the refs; the system is rigged, the media are unfair. Maybe the Democrats ought to counter with the same tactic. Surely, a good case can be made that the media have long been unfair to Democrats. Let's take a look.
During the reign of President Clinton, we were pounded with the line that "Clinton was a draft dodger," repeated by the compliant media. We never heard this about Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, Richard Cheney or any of the other Republican armchair warriors.
So the Democrats nominate decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry in 2004. They can't nail Democrats on the "draft dodger" gambit this time. How wrong we were.
There is a double standard perpetuated by the mainstream media. If a Democrat doesn't serve, he's a draft dodger. If a Republican doesn't serve, that's perfectly OK, as long as he talks tough and wears a plastic flag on his lapel. And if a Democrat does serve, it counts for naught. Kerry's naval service not only didn't count, it was used against him by the Swift Boat crowd who claimed that he didn't deserve those purple hearts.
Sen. Kerry naively believed that he could leave it to the media to distinguish the truth. He was wrong; the media repeated the Swift Boat crowd's anti-Kerry bashing as if that were the story.
During the current race, the mainstream media repeats the Republican talking points and are guilty of "false equivalence" reporting under the guise of "neutrality." Secretary Clinton has been the target of dreamed up conspiracies during her entire public life. Her alleged flaws are fewer both in terms of quality and quantity than those of Trump.
If the Russians were interfering with the U.S. elections and favoring the Democrats, we would never hear the end of it.
The media celebrities find it impossible, or refuse, to say anything good about Secretary Clinton without repeating Republican talking points - "she is flawed, not likable enough, and is untrustworthy." Repeat this often enough and it becomes "truth," regardless of whether it really is.
It's high time that Democrats start working the refs.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
Republicans and conservatives have perfected "working the refs." They have long insisted and cried that the media are liberal. That's just plain eyewash. But if a canard is repeated often enough without being refuted, it becomes accepted as "truth."
The latest Republican incarnation of working the refs is Donald Trump's constant whining that the "liberal media" are against him. "Unfair, the system is rigged," he cries.
The poor baby. Here we have the self-proclaimed winner, the smart operator who has mastered the tax system, the financial system and all that goes with it, claiming to be smarter than everyone else. Now he's tacitly admitting he's not winning. But it's not his fault, he insists - the cards are stacked against him.
Sometimes a comedy spoof nails it more accurately than journalists who are supposed to cover this stuff. The recent "Saturday Night Live" program featured a fictitious Donald Trump proclaiming, "The media is so unfair to me - they put on television everything I have said and done."
That pretty much says it all - The Donald wants it both ways. With his television background he has mastered the art of dominating the media. Using the media, he vanquished his hapless Republican opponents who failed to live up to the "talented bench" myth the Republican National Committee hailed them to be.
After quickly dispatching Wisconsin's "flash in the pan," Gov. Walker, and eventually sending the rest of that "talented bench" back to their rooms, Trump continues to insult his opponents and dominate the media with headline-grabbing controversial statements. When these statements dominate the conversation and the full impact becomes apparent, it is the media that is to blame for any backlash. Never mind that it is Trump's own statements that are being repeated.
He wants it both ways and is working the refs - that unfair liberal media is against him.
The media are not guiltless; they, too, want it both ways. The commercial media - here, I'm referring mainly to the broadcast media, the networks and cable channels - hold ratings and profits as their number one goal. They waxed fat on the viewership enhanced by the Trump phenomenon. A controversial, unique candidate who excited a constituency newly interested in politics was good for the commercial media, especially as long as he was not seen as a serious candidate - another "flash in the pan," they thought, though one more lasting and more attractive to fellow Republicans and the media than Gov. Walker.
But now Trump is seen as serious. His antics, past and present, are under the microscope. Formerly blase media celebrities are taking a harder look. Maybe his threats of lawsuits against inquisitive reporters aren't so desirable after all, either for the media or the nation at large.
Then there is the print media and the endorsements of Secretary Clinton by all but a very few smaller newspapers. The Dallas Morning News, not having endorsed a Democrat since FDR in 1944, and the Arizona Republic, never in their history having endorsed a Democrat, is significant - these are not liberal rags that are ostensibly biased against Republicans. Trump's treatment of reporters during his campaign gives one pause on how he would treat inquisitive, not to mention hostile, reporters if he were President.
So Trump is resorting to the time-honored Republican tactic of working the refs; the system is rigged, the media are unfair. Maybe the Democrats ought to counter with the same tactic. Surely, a good case can be made that the media have long been unfair to Democrats. Let's take a look.
During the reign of President Clinton, we were pounded with the line that "Clinton was a draft dodger," repeated by the compliant media. We never heard this about Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, Richard Cheney or any of the other Republican armchair warriors.
So the Democrats nominate decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry in 2004. They can't nail Democrats on the "draft dodger" gambit this time. How wrong we were.
There is a double standard perpetuated by the mainstream media. If a Democrat doesn't serve, he's a draft dodger. If a Republican doesn't serve, that's perfectly OK, as long as he talks tough and wears a plastic flag on his lapel. And if a Democrat does serve, it counts for naught. Kerry's naval service not only didn't count, it was used against him by the Swift Boat crowd who claimed that he didn't deserve those purple hearts.
Sen. Kerry naively believed that he could leave it to the media to distinguish the truth. He was wrong; the media repeated the Swift Boat crowd's anti-Kerry bashing as if that were the story.
During the current race, the mainstream media repeats the Republican talking points and are guilty of "false equivalence" reporting under the guise of "neutrality." Secretary Clinton has been the target of dreamed up conspiracies during her entire public life. Her alleged flaws are fewer both in terms of quality and quantity than those of Trump.
If the Russians were interfering with the U.S. elections and favoring the Democrats, we would never hear the end of it.
The media celebrities find it impossible, or refuse, to say anything good about Secretary Clinton without repeating Republican talking points - "she is flawed, not likable enough, and is untrustworthy." Repeat this often enough and it becomes "truth," regardless of whether it really is.
It's high time that Democrats start working the refs.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
