Tea Party vs. the news
Talk about ignoring the elephant in the election results. Google News compiles what newspapers are talking about: John McCain, incumbent, wins1. (You should be able to make your browser window wider to make the images wider, or just click on them to see them semi-full-size.)
Even the newspaper that did mention Alaska on Google News had to make sure we also heard about McCain in the same awkward headline. “Murkowski lags behind in Alaska as McCain cruises to victory in Arizona”. (Miller? Miller who?)
From what I’ve been able to glance through this morning, those journalists that are covering Joe Miller’s possible upset are, like Bloomberg, always making sure to contrast McCain’s win with Miller’s possible win as paradoxical: incumbents vs. challengers. Who knows what the people want in this chaotic year? But there is one thing McCain and Miller had in common that might also have influenced their wins in this chaotic year: an endorsement.
Update, Wednesday afternoon
It looks as though the newspapers had stories all ready to go trumpeting “incumbents win, tea parties lose”. The hoped-for meme across the news-sphere was primed in this pre-results Washington Post headline: “Primaries test establishment vs. outsiders in Florida, Arizona and Alaska”. The hoped-for answer was “Washington Veterans Take Senate Primaries”. That was the New York Times headline, up on their web site on August 24—and a version of it, according to the web site, in the paper edition of August 25!
In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski also faced an insurgent candidate, the Tea Party favorite Joe Miller, but after outspending him significantly she appeared to have a comfortable lead heading into the primary.
But the establishment candidate didn’t take in Florida, and there’s a good chance the establishment will also lose in Alaska.2
So it’s not surprising that a lot of national publications are focusing on the one-out-of-three race in Arizona, as you can see in the Google News image above.
MSNBC broke the gates and also showed how much they were pulling for the establishment with their own headline, “First thoughts: Anger trumps accomplishments”.
Not principle or policy, just anger. Well, at least they’re talking about it. But it seems to me that beating an party incumbent in a party primary is itself a major accomplishment.
And, of course, Lindsey Lohan and Tiger Woods.
↑I really need to finish my review of Fit to Print•. It seems the Times is always doing their readers the disservice of misrepresenting the news to the point that they end up having to surprise their readers when the true state of affairs becomes impossible to ignore.
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- Sarah Palin’s Notes: Sarah Palin
- The Facebook notes of Alaska’s Sarah Palin.
- Slate: Joe Miller’s Embarrassing Defeat: Ace at Ace of Spades HQ
- “Politico wanted to call it over, too, because Politico was determined to write the storyline that insurgents (read: Tea Party) went down in flames. First they claimed all insurgents lost, then Scott won in Florida, so Politico changed that to say he was the exception that proved the rule that all insurgents fail… This was an article written to describe what the author wished to happen, and what the intended audience joined him in wishing with all their hearts would happen.”
More Election 2010
- Don’t mess with the deck chairs, fix the boat!
- Advice for the incoming House. Make them deny it! And don’t try to fool us by changing the deck chairs.
- End of media; to delete this media…
- There will be a crisis: but this time they got caught manufacturing their crisis. And it’s a crisis of a most despicable kind: falsely tying a candidate to child molestation.
- San Diego’s proposition D: tax first, reform afterward
- San Diego’s proposition D is an attempt to raise taxes and then reform—which is, of course, an attempt to raise taxes and not reform anything at all.
- Nick Popaditch debates Bob Filner in CA-51
- Popaditch comes off as far more responsive to the needs of the community in this debate.
- There will be lies
- The media takes a blunder by Coons on the first amendment—and outright changes what both candidates said to make it look like a blunder by O’Donnell.
- 10 more pages with the topic Election 2010, and other related pages
More Joe Miller
- End of media; to delete this media…
- There will be a crisis: but this time they got caught manufacturing their crisis. And it’s a crisis of a most despicable kind: falsely tying a candidate to child molestation.
- No room for reason in Alaska
- Jesus Christ, what the hell are the Republicans doing up in Alaska?
- My philosophy: stop, look, and listen
- When an election is close, just wait until the results are in. It’s not that hard.