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Friday, August 21, 2015

The "Get the Facts Later" Approach to Obama/Clinton "Scandals"

GOP's Clinton email indictment fantasy (Julian Epstein and Sam Sokol) from USA Today
"Hyperventilating Republicans rush to the cameras claiming they’ve found the smoking gun proving their political opponents aren’t just wrong, but that they’re criminals. Traffic hungry reporters take “off the record” spin and run with it, publishing dramatic (and click-driving) stories predicting perp walks any day. Then months later, when the facts actually come out, there is far less to the story than meets the eye. ... And it is happening again right now with the overblown, misunderstood controversy regarding Hillary Clinton’s decision to use a private email server during her service as secretary of State."
The ratings math is inescapable: Combine an unprecedented demand for content to fill a 24-hour news cycle with youthful, uniformed reporters who have no command of politics in general (much less the specific facts of any of these scandals), and this is what you get: weeks and months of worthless media gas bagging.  Obama (because he's Obama) has been able to weather Benghazi, IRS-gate, surveillance and on and on, but unfortunately Hillary (and the Clintons generally) have a VERY LONG history of secretiveness, profound ethical lapses, and an inability to handle any scandal deftly and to dispense with them swiftly.  No surprise that there is so much Biden trumpeting going on right now! -- Nuggetsman

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