Matthew Boyle in the Daily Caller writes about Politico’s Amie Parnes, who covers the Michelle Obama beat…
…where “cover the beat” means “relentlessly flaks for her supposed subject”:
Politico
reporter Amie Parnes is a watchdog, but not in the traditional journalistic sense. Critics say Parnes is a vigilant protector of Michelle Obama’s public image, a beat reporter who acts as a press agent for the official she covers.
Parnes’s fawning coverage of the first lady has inspired Betsy Rothstein of FishbowlDC.com to launch a “Parnes-o-Meter,” which ranks Parnes’s pieces about Michelle Obama on a scale of 1 to 10 kisses. “People have asked me, over and over again, for the past three weeks, ‘Why do you hate Amie Parnes? Why do you have such a personal thing against her?’” Rothstein told The Daily Caller. “The fact is that I’ve never met her. I don’t know her and this isn’t personal. It’s totally professional. I’ve watched her work, I’ve read her work, day in and day out, and there is never anything, not even slightly, critical of the first lady. It’s absurd coverage. As a media reporter, I don’t know how I couldn’t point that out.”
To the leftymedia, criticism equal “hate”. Fascinating.
Now, please read Boyle’s entire piece; it does a great job of setting up one of the more egregious cases of media bias out there.
But it brings up a fascinating idea; why not adapt the Parnes-O-Meter to covering the regional media?
Why not rate regional media for the soft-balliness (?) of their coverage of Mark Dayton and the DFL?
Rate the coverage on a scale of 1-5 smooches?
I’ll work on some objective (!) criteria. It’s almost too good not to run with…
Mitch, Nice post, I give it 4 furry hamsters.
Ah, crap, Rob! You beat me to it! I was gonna give it four fuzzy bunnies!
On another note, after 3M’s CEO George Buckley expressed his opinion that dictator in chief is anti-business and stating that they would grow their operations where they were wanted, get ready for the moonbat left nuts calling for the boycott of Scotch tape and sandpaper!
I’d rate the coverage of Gov. Dayton as at least 80 proof.
Derivative of Mr. D – Instead of kisses, this symbol: 750mL bottles of Jim Beam Bourbon.
What is amusing in the piece is that Rothsteins critics attack her (why do the Liberals think everything that displeases them is hate?) and not what she is reporting.
Personally, I think: it’s the First Lady, who cares if she has good p.r?
That said, if the idea is that the First Lady is being covered by someone who is of the “4th Estate” and is supposed to be a reporter Joe Rossi type (google it yourself) showing no favoritism to anyone, than Parnes is nothing more than a flack or personal assistant to the First Lady. But hey, if Jay Carney can go from being disinterested reporter/editor (lol) for Time Magazine straight to VPOTUS now POTUS Spokesman, Parnes may just be auditioning for her next gig.
Re the JimBeams – I’ll leave that to someone else. Partly because I’m loathe to mock addicts’ addictions. Partly because it’s not the Governor we’re rating, here – it’s the butt-smooching media.
Although some of them can knock ’em back, too…
Understood, Mitch. Then I’d rate it 5 smooches and bonus tongue.
Never let the Lefty Blogs say you are uncharitable towards your ideological opponents, MBerg. Admonishment received.
I was thinking Closet Doors but that might be considered mocking sexual orientations and way to inside baseball for the casual observers.
How about pom-poms & megaphones?
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1021&bih=454&q=pom-poms+megaphones&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
Heck, have one for Obama-pr0n. Tingles would average about 4.95/5, and Sully probably rates a 4.8/5 average.
http://tinyurl.com/6kn2mte
You’re welcome.