James Klurfeld is right on
James Klurfeld was republished in the Spokesman-Review on Monday 14 July 2008. His beef with the news media, “Press needs to stop ‘gotcha’ game” was the most concise rebuttal of the news media’s attempts to take out a Dem candidate on “shifts” in his position, but not outright “flip flops.” So far, I have seen only two actual flip flops from Obama on any issue: 1 was gun control legislation in Washington, D.C. until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it. The other had to do with FISA. The willingness of Congress to protect the illegality of surveillance of U.S. citizens by warrantless wiretapping by making it a law. And also, to make the telecomm companies immune to lawsuits. On Iraq, which Klurfeld discussed the most, he opens up options for “re-evaluation” most certainly. But his consistent argument remains, that the war has to end.
If there is a flaw in the fabric of Professor Klurfeld’s editorial; it is not taking into account that the news media will indeed pounce on every change in Obama’s position and hyperbolize it into a mountain. The reasons are simple: The news media doesn’t like Democrats. Or the news media simply doesn’t like “scary other” Senator Barack H. Obama. Or, the news media wants to cater to “bigger flip flopper than Senator Kerry” Senator John McCain. The crux of it all is no longer that the news media does journalism, rather, the news media is Monday morning quaterback on the political scene. Which puts the news media in the bad position of no longer reporting the news. And so, the news media would rather discuss style of political campaigns, from which they can create the “gotcha” moment rather than seek out substance. I detailed such an example in another blog that I wrote referencing how our next president might have to handle the foreign policy particulars of an aggressive Putin. Instead of asking questions of such meaning, the news media such as Froma Harrop and David Broder speculate on the “style” of Obama and how much he has disappoint his base or how much he is trying to confuse the GOP by being a moving target. Neither one of them got the drift that Professor Klurfeld got that Obama wants to govern a country. Between now and November, we’ll assume that changes in foreign policy can develop under the watch of the current president. Changes in domestic policies could develop under the watch of the current Congress. The political candidate who does not take such changes into account, doesn’t exercise the good judgment needed to be president. I agree with Klurfeld that Obama is not an ideological candidate. Yes, he is essentially liberal, but he is not ideologically driven. And there is a world of difference between the one and the other. On the other hand, those who push “stereotypes” on Obama in particular easily ignore the fact that stereotypes don’t exactly fit. And so, they must look for fluff to apply the stereotypical label as opposed to the substance. That, is now their problem
If the press now fears becoming irrelevant and part of the dust heap of history, it just may be that it is no longer doing its job. As opposed to bloggers picking up “news” across the internet wires such as found here:http://fortboise.org/blog/200807.html#p0710
It was initially linked to by Spokesman-Review blog Huckleberries online. A mighty interesting read that included the author slamming Obama over his backtracking on the new FISA law and his also slamming Karl Rove over his presumption that he doesn’t have to testify about wrong doing in the GW White House. Fort Boise provided some interesting news. Klurfeld would be proud.
