Media Matters for America: Hillary, the debate, and the media folly
by Eric Boehlert
....Have we ever seen such a comically overwrought media reaction to a presidential primary debate before? I can't recall one. Echoing GOP talking points virtually word-for word and steadfastly ignoring poll after poll that showed the debate hadn't changed the campaign dynamics one bit, pundits tripped over themselves describing just how badly Clinton had been bloodied and "cut" in the debate fight. By the time the cacophony of negative reviews hit the airwaves during the weekend talk shows, I half-expected to hear pundits suggest that Clinton think about getting out of the race; the damage from the debate was that bad....
...forgive me if I don't embrace the chattering class' breathless consensus that the Philadelphia debate was a turning point in the campaign. It was clearly a watershed moment for the media. But for voters? Not so much. There was little evidence that everyday voters even thought the debate was a remarkable event. (And why should they? It was viewed by less than one percent of all Americans.)
As for progressive activists who would have to fuel any post-debate shift within the Democratic race, the debate was also a nonstarter. At least that was the take-away last week from reading the key liberal blogs, where Clinton criticism usually flows freely. Instead, there was very little complaining about Clinton's debate performance. The story did not receive much play at the widely read Huffington Post; at firedoglake.com, influential blogger Jane Hamsher, posting under the headline "Thanks But I Think I'll Skip the Pile-On," actually credited Clinton for tackling several controversial issues during the debate.
For the Beltway press, though, the debate was Katy-bar-the-door time because reporters and pundits, prompted by the harsh debate attacks, were finally allowed to give voice to their longstanding personal contempt for Clinton and do it under the guise of political analysis. The debate performance crystallized for them what they don't like about Clinton. And for the press, that revelation qualified as news....(L)et's note that the mainstream press and the Republican Party are now in perfect unison when it comes to the topic of Clinton: She has a deeply flawed character. (It's the same conclusion they came to about Gore's character in 2000 and about Sen. John Kerry's character in 2004.) In fact, when the RNC released a Clinton attack video on the Internet last week, it was filled almost entirely with clips of reporters and pundits denigrating Clinton's debate performance.
Republicans don't even have to send out their talking points; members of the press are more than willing to recite the old ones for free.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200711060002 
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