Customer Reviews

Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

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John McCain is a marketing phenomenon who has been able to project an image that entirely belies his real self according to the authors Brock and Waldman. He sells it to the press who sell it to the rest of the nation.

He is styled as a self-effacing war hero who never likes to bring up his captivity in public, except he continually manages to do so. Phrases like: "I haven't been asked so many questions since I was interrogated in Hanoi," or "I missed Woodstock, I was someplace else," or "Well, the longest place I lived was in Hanoi for five and a half years." (He actually grew up in the suburbs outside of D.C.). Even though the Senate and the House of Representatives are filled with people who served honorably and bravely, their names are never associated with their experience. For John McCain, the press will mention this experience of yesteryear almost as if it is a subtitle every time his name is written or spoken. On the other hand, if John Kerry mentions his service to his country, it won't be long before the media will accuse him of trying to exploit his record for political gain--not so for the Arizona senator.

John McCain is a maverick and a moderate. If a maverick is defined as a person who goes against the grain and is willing to take risks, particularly political ones, he isn't it. John McCain has only bucked his party on issues that have already been popular with the public such as finance reform, immigration, and tobacco. His bill at finance reform was toothless to the point of being ineffectual except in helping republicans. Although against lobbying, McCain has a number of lobbyists who have, and are working on behalf of his campaign.

Real mavericks such as Russ Feingold who was the only one to vote against the Patriot Act, a truly unpopular thing to do shortly after the attack of 9/11, is never referred to in the media as a maverick. Other republicans such as Lincoln Chaffee, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe have voted against their own party far more often than the "media-labeled maverick."

McCain, the "moderate" has voted more often with his party than almost anyone else, and that means voting conservative. Over his legislative lifetime, he has averaged 80% voting the party line. The "Christian Coalition of America," as well as "Concerned Women of America," who want to bring "biblical principles into all levels of public policy," gave him high ratings. This is hardly the mark of a centrist. Surprisingly, the media make the excuse that McCain is making these concessions to achieve a worthy goal. According to the media, this is pandering to the party base by other politicians, but since their "intuition" is that it makes McCain "uncomfortable," it is a measure of his strength and character.

He is a straight-shooter. Unfortunately, no one has waffled or flip-flopped more than a large stack in the past eight years than McCain on tax cuts, ethanol, intelligent design, marriage, and anti-gay discrimination. The only thing he hasn't appeared to change his mind on is Roe v. Wade because no one knows for sure exactly where he stands having flip-flopped from against repeal, to indifference, to for its repeal.

Legislators in both houses frequently work both sides of the aisle to come to agreement and pass laws. When McCain has done it, it was because he was putting principle above party, when it has been others, the media reports how they have been pandering to the right or left e.g. Hillary Clinton said that reducing abortions could happen by providing greater funding for birth control, an issue she has always held. However, it didn't take long for the media to claim that she was pandering to the right, and sacrificing her principles.

The other free ride is that McCain is a man of character, which has been summed up by his experience as a prisoner of war. Nothing is mentioned of McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal where he tried to quash an investigation into the savings and loan malfeasance against his good friend and political campaign contributor, John Keating. There was considerable evidence that John McCain's office then leaked information to the press, which made the others involved appear to have played a larger role than McCain. He would later lie about the leaks under oath.

Finally, Brock and Waldman talk about the pack mentality amongst the media. They travel on the same planes and buses. They eat in the same restaurants and sleep in the same hotels. They talk and share notes. A pack mentality begins to form. When new media members hear the adulation of McCain from those who have been with him, the "Halo Effect" begins to form.

Yesterday, I watched Tim Russert mention McCain, the maverick on "Meet the Press." I think these authors might be on to something. See how many times between here and November you will hear or read about John McCain as a maverick, and John McCain, as a former P.O.W."

Brock and Waldman wonder when those in the media will be introspective enough to ask themselves if they are judging candidate McCain by a different standard than others, and if such thinking is a disservice to the public. To quote the authors: "One might even say the reporter who was willing to ask those questions might even be a maverick."

I couldn't have said it better.



Also Recommended:

Welch, Matt, "McCain: the Myth of a Maverick."

Waldman, Glenn, "Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics."

I recommend googling "Pygmalion Effect," or "Halo and Horns Effect" for those of you who might not be familiar with it.

This book is one more example of a crucial piece of information that helps us to fill in a larger and more troubling picture:

The mainstream media relies on myths, narratives and storylines that so shape our perception of people and events that it becomes a near impossiblity for citizens to stay informed about important national issues.

Waldman and Brock of MediaMatters.org have finally issued a book they have been working on for years and it could not be appearing in print at a more useful time. "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media" peels away the press/political onion and gets to the heart of why McCain is truly getting a pass from the mainstream media.

"Hero," "Patriot," "Maverick," and "Straight Talker"--we've all heard the media's buzzwords in regard to John McCain and this book will tell you first--the truth behind them, and second--why you continue to hear them.

It probably won't surprise you to learn once again that the rock has to be lifted up so the sunshine can start to illuminate everything that grows and wriggles underneath. As Americans we have gone through this sometimes painful process more than once and those who are reluctant to follow truth wherever it may lead them might do well to stop at the period at the end of this sentence and go no further.

For others, this book contains education we all need to have if we are going to keep participating in American democracy. This is an important and readable book. It's not only about John McCain. It's also about our supposedly "liberal media" and how it treats our public figures.

And how we can so easily be misled and left behind if we're not more discerning and critical.

It's a fact: The Media loves them some McCain. What seems apparent at first or second glance becomes nauseatingly obvious and borderline criminal when all the evidence is gathered in once place, as in this book. The phoenix-like rise of McCain's campaign from the ashes is not so bizarre and miraculous when one faces reality and recognizes that the media was pulling for McCain through those dark days, and now that he's the nominee, they can slip into their old habits without making it seem so obvious.

The book is depressing and heartening at the same time - while the media arrogantly goes about preening their favorites, facts be damned, it's long overdue that this Beltway circle jerk is illuminated.

A good insight into the straight talking John McCain and what he is like when not in the public eye. While appearing to sometimes conflict with the Republican base, many are on safe issues. The fact that he is a true American hero and survivor that he supposedly keeps from talking about, it's a subject that always seems to come up. He's tough and challenging and the author treats him like someone he has enjoyed knowing and watching, but not without his own flaws, some admitted and others left to discern by the reader.

John McCain's carefully cultivated -- and totally fabricated -- image with the Traditional Media is exposed in this extraordinary book. Our current President is a creation of a cowed and obedient media. Learn about the GOP's nominee, and his obedient press, by reading this great book.

This book is not a puff piece for Democrats (Obama or Clinton), nor does it portray presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain as an entirely hollow man.

But it convincingly makes the point that however likable many of McCain's personal qualities are, the media has focused on them to the exclusion of nearly everything else. Including his values as expressed through his actions in office, and his less-likable qualities.

As a book, it's not written to stand the test of time (which is why only four stars), rather a quick, undemanding but not insulting read. One that may arouse responses of "really?" as it shows you things about John McCain that, whichever party you support, I'd be willing to bet you didn't know.

For example, that his South Carolina spokesman was a critic of making Martin Luther King's birthday a holiday, and praised *David Duke* as a...heh..."maverick."

I didn't know that.

It's not the Liberals as Rush has taught you for 25 years now.
It's McCain. It has always been McCain. I remember his vacant stare on the tube twenty five years ago, and I see the same now.

Doesn't this guy get any older than he was then?
The media gives him a free ride, and we buy it, unable to remember what was said yesterday, let alone last year.
"The economy is fundamentall sound."
Remember that?
The media won't let you.
Read this book before you vote.

McCain has spent a lifetime changing his stripes for expediency's sake. From the crash-disfigured wife he dumped--after having numerous affairs--to marry Cindy to his cozy relationship with Charles Keating who helped cost taxpayers $120 billion to his instantaneous morph into a "Reformer" when caught red-handed in the corrupt cash jar to his recent favors for Phoenix developer Donald R. Diamond, McCain has been light on his feet and filled with self-righteousness. McCain says we could have won the Vietnam War if we had used all the weapons at our disposal, a thinly veiled reference to Goldwater's recommendation that North Vietnam should be nuked. McCain's megalomaniacal need to inject himself into the recent Georgian crisis showed him to be a demagogue who would be dangerous in higher office. Yet the Washington press corps rammer on about "The McCain Brand" and continue to cover for him. Read the book and learn.

A Media Matters for America review found that since February 27, the date that televangelist John Hagee endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, The New York Times and The Washington Post combined have published more than 12 times as many articles mentioning Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Sen. Barack Obama as they have mentioning Hagee and McCain. Now you know why this extreme asymmetry in media attitude and coverage obtains - and why reporters know, and make sure McCain has access to his favorite snacks (Dunkin Donut with Sprinkles) and just how to fix his coffee (cream and sugar).

Getting media traction has been a mystery up to now, but this book details the cogs in the machine that Hillary Clinton described as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" .

Without getting into the politics of this book, which is somewhat unavoidable given who the authors are, the only thing I really have to say about this book is that it is boring.

Essentially it recycles a bunch of examples of McCain switching positions or losing his temper or swearing, without the particulars being covered in the MSM.

Oh, well, I guess. Nothing new there. Unfortunately, you get the point of the book in the first 20 pages. After that, it's just repeated over and over. There really is nothing new or interesting in the book after the first few pages.

I know Media Matters has an anti-McCain bent, but I would think if they wanted to publish a hit-book, they could do better than this. I was really disappointed.