IN A CONVERSATION that cites the biased coverage of 2008, as well as what it might mean for 2012, the interview ABC News’s Jake Tapper did with Laura Ingraham is not something you’ll hear every day.
Tapper said he thought the “media helped tip the scales” in ’08, which I prove conclusively in my book, though it’s about a lot more. Tapper went on to talk also about “story selection,” as well as “magazine covers, photos picked” and stated “that it wasn?t always the fairest coverage and I hope it doesn’t happen again.? Amen.
Ingraham also brought up something Mark Halperin said on the Mitt Romney tax coverage by the press.
“The press still likes this story a lot. The media is very susceptible to doing what the Obama campaign wants, which is to focus on this. Do voters care about this? I don’t think so.” – Mark Halperin talking to NBC’s Lester Holt
At least Tapper believes this is a legitimate issue. What Halperin misses is the overall narrative between taxes, Bain capital and Mitt Romney’s own behavior, as well as his wife’s, and the impression being left. It colors everything else, which I believe current polling reveals, though there is no evidence Romney-Ryan can’t overcome the obstacle, especially if they can turn the discussion back to the economy.
However, the most important back and forth came on Afghanistan. Tapper is writing a book on the Afghanistan. He mentions 50-60 Afghan troops plotting to kill U.S. soldiers that were thankfully stopped. He then goes on to say, that not only is it a real problem, but ?… It’s a real question about whether the Afghan Army and whether the U.S. in an effort to beef up the troop level to hasten the exit of the United States has lowered the standard for these… Afghan troops, so that we actually have enemies of the U.S. or people who are at least hostile to the U.S. being accepted and trained by the Afghans? and being funded by the American people, it should be added. Ingraham pressed this point.
Pres. Obama committing American resources to Afghanistan through 2024 is a mistake. But what is occurring in Afghanistan, with green-on-blue killings now an epidemic, is something that is truly troubling. Both are more important than anything else we’re talking about today.
Tapper’s correct, we’re not getting sufficient answers about the killings, which I last noted when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan to address the killings, as well as the most recent assaults here and here. We need more answers, that’s for sure.
Tape of the full interview…
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