MSM Holds Its Freedom Cheap; Ours, Too

(Neveshkin Nikolay / Shutterstock.com)

My column at First Things this week chronicles the almost surreal behavior of the mainstream media as they do whatever they can to propel Obama and their preferred narrative forward.

When the State Department threatened to go into a bureaucratic swoon of Judy-Garlandesque proportions if forced to answer questions about the attack, the press offered a thoughtful cold compress to soothe its frazzled brow, and then closed the door softly, as it made its way out.

After the administration finally admitted to Congress that the September 11th violence was, in fact, a terror attack—quite possibly planned by Al Qaeda and released former detainees of Guantanamo Bay—the press corps heard White House Spokesman Jay Carney affirm that the attacks were “self-evidently” terrorist in nature. The press expressed no surprise at the change in story; they simply, dutifully, repeated what they had been told, while also declaring Mitt Romney’s campaign “lost”, thanks to a tape from May of 2012, wherein Romney made an elitist, possibly racist, suggestion that 47 percent of the country, realistically, would never vote for him.

It took a Spanish-language interview with Univision for President Obama to be asked direct and pointed questions about Libya and other issues, and the president’s answers were largely meandering and unfocused, like the defensive moves of a boxer who has taken a surprise hit and is trying to run out the clock for the safety of his corner.

This week, it has seemed to me that Obama would be fine with losing this gig, and being done with having to answer to so many, or anyone.

The media are willfully transforming into Pravda on behalf of a president who looks, increasingly, like a man who wishes it would all go away.

I’ve taken to wondering if perhaps Obama does not really want to be re-elected, and the press is thwarting him at every turn; perhaps an Obama victory is merely incidental to the press, as long as their narrative is sustained.

You can read the rest, here.

Of course, none of this should surprise us. Seems a natural progression from where we were four years ago, this week.

RELATED:
Powerline: The State Department Melt-down

Ed Driscoll: Oh, That Legacy Media!

Via Meadia: Americans turn on the MSM; What does it mean?

VDH: How do you defeat the “ministry of truth”?

Instapundit: the crack-up and creating product for themselves

Hot Air: on Bandwagoneering

Mickey Kaus: Fun with Spin and Stats

Language warning: Misinformation seems to be coming from State and the administration