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Schieffer: “Maybe We Were Not Skeptical Enough” of Obama
Now you tell us.
Exiting CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer admitted to Fox News’ Howard Kurtz in an interview broadcast Sunday that just maybe perhaps the media went a little too easy on Barack Obama in 2008.
Let me tell you something. I was there as part of the MSM during the campaign. The media, as a general rule, acquiesced in the proposition that Obama was something different. Not really a politician. Some went through the motions of questioning him, but in their hearts they knew he was different.
With a few exceptions, they bought the storyline sold to them and the country by Obama’s seasoned political operatives. You really couldn’t say on polite journalistic company that maybe Obama was full of it. Without being suspected of being one of them. You know, a conservative. Someone not down with the great vision of this post-political, post-partisan, crusader for the good.
Not that they’re looking for their money back or even understand what happened to them. Schieffer, at least a little bit and with clear reluctance, does.
From the interviews:
KURTZ: Many people in this country, as you know, think the three broadcast networks are too biased, too liberal. Would you agree looking back in the media gave Barack Obama an incredibly easy ride in 2008, and for much of his presidency?
SCHIEFFER: Well, I think the whole political world was struck by this fellow who sort of came out of nowhere with this very unusual name and when he won out in Iowa, I think people sat up and took notice.
KURTZ: But isn’t it the job of journalists to be skeptical of the young phenom?
SCHIEFFER: Yeah, it is. It is. And I don’t know, maybe we were not skeptical enough. It was a campaign. Howie, my feeling is it is the role of the other — of the opponents to make the campaign. I think as journalists, basically, what we do is we watch the campaign and we report what the two sides are doing. I think it is the politicians who make the campaign.
KURTZ: But don’t journalists have an adversarial role to play when you have a Presidential candidate in the chair facing you…
SCHIEFFER: Sure.
KURTZ: — You want to be tough on that person?
SCHIEFFER: Well, I think you want to get to the truth. What you’re trying to do is find out who this person is and who he’s about. I don’t think that always has to be adversarial.
Source: http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2015/06/01/schieffer-skeptical-obama/
