Bozell Column: No Shutdown for Biased Media
The ominous threat of a government shutdown dominated the news last week. The media weren’t wrong to cover it as a dramatic debate, but all of the hype and horror looked a little bizarre by the weekend – like wide-eyed, screaming hurricane warnings on the Weather Channel followed by a sunny calm. When the deal was struck, the TV pundits quickly moved on to how there were sharper, harsher battles ahead over much larger chunks of federal spending. That’s true. But in hindsight, the entire shutdown fight looks by comparison like a war over who was splitting the pizza delivery bill….tip. The $38 billion in spending cuts is a bit of an achievement when Obama didn’t want to cut anything – but it’s still the drop in the proverbial $3.7 trillion bucket. Instead of fighting over who’s the “winner” in this small skirmish, let’s just focus on a few obnoxious shutdown spins. 1. Obama the adult vs. Tea Party brats. CBS reporter Chip Reid summed this up helpfully: “One thing the White House is hoping to do is have the President appear like an adult breaking up a childish battle.” CNN analyst Gloria Borger “Politically, what he’s trying to do is be the grown-up.” This is the media trying to help the president triangulate out of owning any of this deficit mess. This is about spending for the fiscal year that began last October , more than six months ago when the Democrats controlled everything. Back then, the supposed “grown-up” Obama didn’t lift a finger to stop kicking the can with continuing resolutions. He was too busy blaming Republicans for driving the country into a “ditch.” Then after the GOP took over the House in January, Obama refused to participate in negotiations. In the closing days, the Reids and Borgers pretended Obama was not a partisan leader who would stand with the Democrats. The media didn’t want him to be an architect of
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on April 12, 2011. Filed under