Red State

Popular opinion holds that mainstream media and Web content lean Democratic, and a cursory look at campaign donations by professionals lends weight to that opinion. Even without figures, it’s easy to compare story lines for the candidates. Sen. Barack Obama spends 20 years in a church led by a pastor who damns America from the pulpit and media accepts the senator’s explanation he didn’t hear words of hate during the whole time he attended the church. But former senator Phil Gramm mentions whining, and the media not only takes his comments out of context, they make it sound like he stomped on a puppy. Media overwhelmingly want sunshine in government, even on classified military situations. But media is not so accommodating when it comes to in-house sunshine.

I spent part of this morning using an interactive tool at The Orlando Sentinel. The tool allows you to look up campaign donations by profession, by name, by employer and by just about any other search term applicable. I admit this isn't a scientific study, but I used identical search terms for each candidate.

I posted the full chart showing my findings at The US Report, but I’m new at the Red State blog and I’m not quite sure how to incorporate a graphic (or even if I am permitted to) here. There are some comparisons worth noting, based on figures from the Federal Election Commission for donations during the first 3 quarters of 2007. The figures reflect donations from professionals who either work as employees or are self-employed in each field. Figures cited here are a snapshot of all the figures on the chart.

Writers love Obama. They gave him almost a million dollars—$932,885. McCain got some writerly love—he received $84,376 from this group.

Journalists are also fond of Obama, donating $63,460 to him. McCain got $2,800 from journalists. That’s the most troubling figure for me, because journalists shape the story narrative the public hears, sees or reads.

Editors, like journalists, also heart Obama. Editors gave the Illinois junior senator $147,871. To McCain editors donated $14,665.

Even marketing types prefer to send their bucks to Obama, with public relations professionals sending him $92,983. McCain received $35,105.

One of the most astonishing search results related to the Web. Google employees appear to be wild about Obama, donating $135,230 to his campaign. They donated $4,350 to McCain. Yahoo employees followed their Google brethren, bestowing $29,459 on Obama and $2,300 on McCain. Those of us who have a tendency to distrust may wonder why conservative sites sometimes take so long to locate.

Last year I spoke to a group of college students about writing. One young woman asked me about ethics. My exact words were, “Journalism has no ethics at present.”

When I decided to go public with my support for McCain, I deliberately stopped writing straight news for two clients. I posted a disclosure at my blog. Anyone presenting news as straight news should do the same so the reader understands exactly where a writer or journalist’s sentiments fall. Not a single professional organization is addressing this issue right now and I can make that statement because I belong to many, including those that require vetting.

Next time you see Obama get a pass for something like calling regular Americans bitter and projecting them as gun-toting religious nuts, or next time you see McCain taken to task over something as minute as an out-of-context, hyperbolic statement by an economic adviser, remember these figures, and I’ll throw a few more in from another source as well.

In October, 2007, the Committee of Concerned Journalists called attention to a study undertaken by The Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study compared campaign coverage of each candidate. At that time, results indicated of all stories related to Obama, 46.7 percent were positive and 15.8 percent were negative. Of all stories run on Sen. John McCain, 12.4 percent were positive and 47.9 percent were negative.

Media truly does heart Obama, not only with ink and pixels but with dollars as well.

As the body politic continues its evolution, some things change and some stay the same. One thing that has been more or less relegated to the ash heap of history is the Party Platform. it's a relic of a bygone age when principles and policy stances had meaning and one could glean a fairly accurate sense of the parties motives and direction.

That day, I'm sorry to report, is gone! Not that I think there isn't a place for the party platform, on the contrary, I think over simplified talking points look great on the party's website! I just don't think members, especially elected ones, are paying them much attention anymore!

Well, imagine my surprise as I opened my email this morning to find a letter from the the RNC encouraging me to visit a new website and participate in crafting the platform for the next four years! Did you catch that? The next four years? I wonder if that was intentional? more on that down article.

The site is gopplatform2008.com and is put together by what the RNC is calling the Republican Platform Committee:

Welcome to the most grassroots-driven platform development effort in the history of American politics!

The Republican Party is seeking your input as we develop the policies and principles upon which we should stand for the next four years. On this website, you can share your thoughts, participate in polls, and communicate directly with the policymakers who will be shaping the party's agenda. All comments and feedback will be reviewed and taken into full consideration as we prepare for our convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

We hope that this process will guarantee the greatest amount of public input into any platform in American history!

Two things that jumped out at me right away were:

1) The Republican Party is seeking your input as we develop the policies and principles upon which we should stand for the next four years.

As I mentioned above, this looks to be intentional and seems to indicate a) that the RNC only sees a one term McCain presidency or b) Doesn't believe McCain will be victorious in Nov. I can't imagine they really feel this way but it does make one wonder?

2) All comments and feedback will be reviewed and taken into full consideration as we prepare for our convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul

I have a feeling or a suspicion, if you will, that this effort may be an attempt to codify conservative policies and principles and present them in a meaningful way at convention in an attempt to rein in our nominees penchant for embracing centrist to leftist policies and principles!

I may be reading too much in here... but who can blame me?