The Media’s Crocodile Tears for Senator McCain Doesn’t Erase Their Past Demonization of Him
by
Joseph A. Wulfsohn | Aug 27th, 2018
Sen.
John McCain (R-AZ) was an honorable human being. He sacrificed so much with his military service and as a POW and dedicated his entire adult life to public service. It’s safe to say that virtually everyone had at least one political disagreement with the senator. After all, he was America’s “maverick.”
And while we will reflect on his incredible life, and certainly there is an impulse to offer praise in the event of someone’s death, we should also reflect on the media’s selective treatment of McCain.
Since the announcement of his death, McCain has been showered with deserving praise by the media with
The New York Times calling him a “scarred but happy warrior” and
The Washington Post declaring his death the “passing of an era.” There have been tweets from nearly every prominent journalist paying tribute to the top Republican, praising him as a “hero” and a “patriot.”
The fickle media conveniently pays respect to McCain whenever he isn’t deemed a political threat. In other words, they will do everything to depict him as a monster if, just for example, he’s seeking higher office. Or if he’s passing legislation they themselves reject. Or he agrees with Republicans on anything, really.
But whenever he’s in opposition to President
Donald Trump, he’s suddenly no longer the villain they previously painted him as; he becomes the media’s best friend and the epitome of moral authority. And seeing them shame the White House into honoring McCain properly is truly comical.
Let’s look back at his 2008 presidential campaign against then-Sen.
Barack Obama (D-IL).
We’ve all seen that famous clip of McCain confronting a supporter at a town hall when she referred to Obama as an “Arab” and how he defended his opponent’s patriotism, calling him a “decent family man” and stressing their differences were strictly political.
That’s a degree of good faith that was not extended to him in return. Even at the time, The Huffington Post spun that exchange for him not “directly” refuting the Arab claim. And more recently, TeenVogue went even further, calling McCain’s defense of Obama “patently Islamophobic” because he seemed to have separated being an Arab from being a “decent family man.” On his own side, Republican voters held this moment as an example of how being fair or righteous gains nothing in a contest with Democrats and the press. The media won’t concede decency in Republicans during an election.
Just look at how they covered the rest of his campaign.
Slate labeled McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin as “heirs” of George Wallace‘s “legacy of resentment.” The Guardian described “the real McCain” as someone who has “sided with religious and political extremists who believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral” and “who wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned.” And a CBS News columnist insisted that his only path to victory in the 2008 election was taking “the low road,” suggesting his “The American President” campaign slogan used in his ads were meant to stress Obama’s “differentness,” aka the fact that he’s black. In the NYT‘s endorsement of Obama, they accused McCain of running a campaign on “partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism.”
Even more than painting him as evil, they questioned his mental and physical fitness for the job, his age, his health … all the things the press deemed sexist when Trump supporters questioned Hillary Clinton‘s fitness in 2016.
McCain was later smeared as a racist in 2012 by then-MSNBC.com editor Richard Wolffe, citing his “racial prejudice” against Obama’s nominee to replace Clinton at the State Department Susan Rice and not the actual reason, which was Rice’s misleading characterization of the Benghazi terrorist attack.
Then in 2017, the media’s indignant rejection of racist McCain returned to a newfound love. Specifically, their tune changed during the emotional health care debate. Before his infamous thumbs down vote on the “skinny” Obamacare repeal, something that received fawning praise from most of the mainstream media (mostly notably from MSNBC’s
Brian Williams who called it a “profile in courage”), a
GQ columnist
predicted he wouldn’t “show courage,” calling him a “shitbag.”
Jimmy Kimmel repeatedly thanked McCain for his opposition to the Graham-Cassidy bill, calling him a “hero.” And just weeks later, after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, he
grouped McCain with other Republicans who he said the NRA had their “balls in a money clip.”
Are we sensing a pattern here?
The left paints GOPers as evil and bigoted and they only cease their attacks when they align with their own positions and narratives. They gave the same treatment to
Mitt Romney, depicting him as an out-of-touch, racist, wealthy elitist who puts “women in binders.” And they would have given the same treatment to
Ted Cruz,
Marco Rubio, and even
John Kasich if they were up against Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Bill Maher admitted in 2016 that it was wrong when he and other liberals “cried wolf” with McCain, Romney as well as
George W. Bush, saying it was a “big mistake” to panic over them… at least in comparison to Trump.
Of course, he waited to say that until
after the damage was done and when McCain, Romney, and Bush became politically irrelevant.
And according to the Pew Research Center, McCain and Trump have one thing in common; overwhelming negative campaign coverage. A 2008 study showed that nearly 60% of McCain stories were negative while only 14% were positive. Meanwhile, 36% of stories on Obama were positive and only 29% were negative.
Did a war hero like John McCain deserve 60% of negative coverage? Of course not.
Just as we are all reflecting on McCain’s life and legacy, the media should reflect on how they covered him. McCain was a good man and they treated him like garbage when he sought the highest office in the land.
In opposition to Obama, he was demonized. In opposition to Trump, he was lionized.
We shouldn’t be fooled by their crocodile tears now that he has passed. After all, they did nothing but presented him as if he were Satan himself as they did with Bush and Romney. They wouldn’t dare humanize political opposition. Because to them, Republicans are evil when they run for president and are only respected when they’re powerless.
Or dead.
