Michael Barone, Jerk

5:31 am EST October 19th, 2006 | News | 3 Comments

michael barone, jerkThe main reason I don’t like Michael Barone is because he’s one of those folks who goes into the media pretending to be a neutral and fair reporter, when he’s in fact a conservative hack (this is also why I go after Glenn Reynolds so often). In my view, while I may consider Sean Hannity a distasteful automaton with no original thoughts of his own and Rush Limbaugh a pill popping gas bag knuckle dragging racist buffoon – I find them leagues above Michael Barone. For the simple reason that Hannity and Limbaugh do not pretend to be neutral. They’re both clearly conservatives. Conservative asses, but still, conservatives.

Barone, on the other hand, has a niche of his own with his poltiical almanac that he puts out every two years and everyone buys (though I really wonder how many people really consult it, or if it sits there on a desk or shelf looking real nice like the complete Encyclopedia Britannica) and pretends to just be looking at the trends and in and outs of politics from a purely academic stand when in fact he’s just another conservative in the media.

A conservative that makes up stuff or shows he’s out of touch.

My favorite example of Michael Barone’s right-wing hackery was when he reported from the floor of the 2004 DNC convention about John Kerry’s speech. According to Barone, the audience was “silent” when John Kerry referenced military strength, explicitly saying from a purely fact based point of view that Democrats do in fact hate the military.

The fact was, there was wild applause not once but at least four times during Kerry’s speech directly in reference to our military and its strength. See the video here, put together two years ago by a guy I’ll call “Oliver Willis”.

The even more amazing fact was that this had happened just minutes before Barone filed his supposedly non-partisan, “straight” report.

Guys like Barone and Reynolds stick in my craw, and they should always be called out and scorned.

Related Posts

  • No Related Post
«
»

3 Responses to “Michael Barone, Jerk”

  1. johnnyprogressive says:
    October 19, 2006 at 5:52 am

    not too long ago, I used to have a US News & World Report subscription. The first thing Id do when getting it is open to Barone’s column and see how long Id have to read to find the first patently false statement. It usually didnt require reading past the first or second paragraph.

  2. Marty says:
    October 19, 2006 at 4:52 pm

    Tycof- I guess “Oliver doesn’t try to pretend to be unbiased” would be the obviouse defense here. But then Oliver should also go after Katie Couric, George Stephanopolous, Tim Russert, Bob Scheiffer, Dan Rather, David Shuster, Jennifer Loven… aw hell- my fingers would fall off if I had to type them all. Besides- a media matters guy is paid to only see one side of the coin.

  3. Oliver says:
    October 19, 2006 at 5:00 pm

    Actually I have gone after Stephanopolous, Couric, as well as Russert and others who portray themselves as neutral yet err in favor of the right. But please do not let the facts get in the way of an attack.

    I say I’m a partisan Democrat, I’ve always said I’m a partisan Democrat.