Corporate Media Manufactures Power for Limp GOP

Posted by David Sirota, Open Left at 7:26 AM on January 29, 2009.

So, as reviewed ad nauseum here, Republican legislators and their economic policies not only got their asses handed to them in the most recent election, but when it comes specifically to the economic stimulus package, they themselves admit they have almost zero actual legislative power to impact the bill.

That is, when you empirically consider the rules of the House in giving almost tyrannical power to the majority, and when you consider that even Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky acknowledges he can't stop the stimulus in the Senate, congressional Republicans have just about zero official power to stop -- or even shape -- the economic stimulus bill.

And yet, as Think Progress reports, cable news shows have given these same completely powerless and irrelevant Republican legislators twice as much media coverage about their views on the stimulus bill as they have given to Democratic legislators, who have all the power to shape and pass the bill.  

Considering, again, just the pure empirical realities, it would be a travesty if Republican legislators even got equal time to Democrats, because they do not have even close to equal power in shaping the bill. But we're way beyond "travesty" now. Giving Republicans twice as much coverage as Democratic legislators is quite literally an effort to manufacture political power for Republicans when they don't actually have any.

Why would cable news try to do this? In this case, I don't think it has as much to do with the media's inherent conservatism (though that certainly is a factor) as it does with the media's desire to create the perception of a real political "battle" for the sake of attracting viewers.*

If reporters and producers permit the public to believe a real legislative "battle" doesn't exist -- that is, if they actually report the mathematical reality of the situation -- then it's harder to create fancy, conflict-focused graphics, slogans and narratives convincing viewers they must tune in to get the latest on a supposed bloodsport.

That's simply an unacceptable route in this age of infotainment, and so the media work to fabricate a storyline by portraying Republicans not just as powerful as Democrats, but as more powerful than Democrats -- twice as powerful, to be exact.

The problem, of course, is not just that portrayals can create their own vague reality. I'm not saying the media can wave its magic conservative wand and give Republicans enough power to overcome wide Democratic majorities. But I am saying that by giving powerless Republicans twice the media coverage as Democrats on a given bill, the media can take a completely powerless group and give it a shred of public-opinion-shaping relevance, which over time, can translate into power.

This is one of the big reasons I thought it was a huge mistake for Barack Obama not to follow the lead of people like Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, or Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and instead engage House Republicans -- the most politically irrelevant people in American politics.

It's not that I thought he shouldn't meet with them or try to get them to support his stimulus bill. Rhetorical outreach is A-OK by me. I thought it was stupid for him to start -- or even pretend -- to legislatively negotiate with them on policy, because that gave the media a justification to pretend that House Republicans actually have a modicum of legislative power that they, in fact, do not have.

That said, Obama's fetishization of bipartisanship cannot explain away the media crime of cable news giving legislatively powerless people twice the coverage of people with all the legislative power. That's just straight-up journalistic malpractice.

*Update: Paul makes a great point: If the only thing the media cared about was creating conflict -- and not ideology -- then they would have given disproportionate coverage to Democrats when they were in the congressional minority under George W. Bush (i.e. the analog to the situation Republicans find themselves in right now). But that didn't happen, meaning that what's going on here is definitely a mix of both the media's conservative bias and their desire for conflict.

Tagged as: republicans, gop, obama, corporate media, corporate media suck, stimulus bill