By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--December 11, 2015
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I'm honestly not sure if the Associated Press has enough self-awareness left to realize what it's doing here. And I based that on my own personal experience working in newsrooms. The bias isn't a product of conspiratorial meetings in which they sit around and ask, "How can we help the Democrats and screw the Republicans in our news coverage even as we pretend it's unbiased?" In fact, they'll point to the ridiculousness of that proposition as evidence there is, in fact, no bias at all.But when an Iowa man broke into her riff with a question about how the country could confront a new wave of hate and fear, her response sounded less like that of a commander in chief than of a soothing self-help guru. "We've got to do everything we can to weed out hate and plant love and kindness," she told a crowd of several hundred. The lovey-dovey message seems surprising coming from a Washington veteran so battle-hardened that she often cites Eleanor Roosevelt's mantra about women in public life needing "skin like a rhinoceros." But as she grapples with Donald Trump's prominence in the Republican race, she's embraced a little love and kindness as a near-constant refrain.
In Alabama, she told lawyers celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott that justice means "standing beside love." In Atlanta, Clinton promised black ministers she'd run on a "love and kindness platform." After Trump said he'd block Muslims from entering the country, her campaign quickly churned out a new catch phrase: "Love trumps hate."Now to be sure, within the text of the story there is some mild examination of just how seriously anyone can really take this, but the AP goes pretty easy because they're as invested as anyone in the narrative that Trump = Hate and therefore anyone who opposes Trump must = Love. And this is a classic Hillary tactic anyway. First you let the media define your opponent in a cartoonish way - Trump hates Muslims, Trump hates Mexicans, Trump hates whoever - then you simply go around talking about how much you love the virtuous opposite trait. Anyone who's paid attention to Hillary Clinton's career knows that the only thing she loves is something that benefits Hillary Clinton. But no matter. She might as well be Barry White as far as the AP is concerned, because her nonsense fits their narrative so why not roll with it, up to and including the most embarrassing headline since Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out Of Control. It can't be easy to be a bunch of self-important malletheads with a big megaphone and no idea how to use it.
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