Press uses the First Amendment for Personal Destruction

The media spectacle we saw transpire this week concerning suggestive pictures that Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) sent to women he follows on Twitter was just as much about how the press uses their First Amendment right to justify the personal destruction of public people as it is about his personal failings as a human being.

The sexual transgressions of narcissistic powerful men like former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), former Senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards (D-NC), former Senator John Ensign (R-NV), and Congressman Weiner is typical tabloid news that belongs in the National Enquirer.  

Back in good old days when journalists were more ethical than they are nowadays, you turned to rags like the Enquirer if you wanted to pry into a public figure’s personal life.  Instead, this new opinionated news media turns every salacious regional story into a national one and sells it to the public as hard news when it has absolutely nothing to do with the public’s right to know.

Here the press goes again…another fake GOP presidential candidate

For profit and ratings, the news media permit unscrupulous characters like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin to use their news organization to promote something that is blatantly false but personally advantageous for them. 

With sufficient evidence to the contrary that Trump was not launching a presidential campaign, cable to network news to print to online disregarded the evidence and broadcasters, commentators, journalists, and pundits emphatically declared Trump a serious candidate. The most vocal exception to that long list of professionals was Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC “The Last Word.”  He consistently, in a very direct and logical manner, made the case why Trump was not running for president.  Now, a month later, here the press goes again covering Sarah Palin, the newest fake 2012 GOP presidential candidate. 

Obama gets the bump. Where’s the news coverage?

President Obama approval rating hits 60 percent, a two-year high, in the AP-GfK poll*.  Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans give him credit dealing with a stubborn economy, and the numbers get better when it comes to national security.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Americans trust him to handle terrorist threats.  Forty-five percent (45%) say the country is headed in the right direction. That’s up from thirty-five percent in March.  Fifty-three percent (53%) now say he deserves re-election, which is the same percentage that got him elected. 

AP-GfK poll* finds that 69 percent (63%) say he will keep America safe, 65 percent (65%) say he is a strong leader, 63 percent (63%) believes he understands the problems of ordinary people and 63 percent (63%) say he cares about people like them, and 63 percent (63%) view President Obama favorably. Sixty-one percent (61%) disapprove of his handling of gas prices, even though there is nothing he or any President can do about it.

What is so significant about the AP-GfK poll* is that it included landline and cellphone interviews.  Young people ages 18-34 are not always included in national polls because their primary number is a cellphone.