Obama campaign launches War on the Mainstream Media

Published May 7, 2012 8:58pm ET



The Obama 2012 campaign is none too happy about a recent Washington Post article that claimed voter registration is down in two of Obama’s key demographics – Hispanics and blacks.


The Obama campaign came out swinging this afternoon with this blog post in response to WaPo’s article, which was published last Friday:

The Washington Post recently published a story (“Voter registration down among Hispanics, blacks” May 4th, 2012) that inaccurately claimed that the number of African American and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008; it has not.

One of the most important successes of the historic 2008 campaign was the Obama-Biden ticket’s ability to expand the electorate—not just with first-time voters, but with eligible voters who for the first time felt they were being heard.



 

The blog goes on to claim that in 2008, more young people, black people and Hispanics came out to vote than in previous elections. The blog provides no evidence for this information, so I did Obama the favor of finding it for him. I guess his campaign’s college student volunteers were no where to be found today.

 In 2008 we saw participation increase across the board—more young voters, more older voters, more black voters, more Hispanic voters, more white voters. And they realize that voting once isn’t enough; to bring about real and lasting change, we need to stay involved throughout 2012 and vote in November.

The supporters who make this grassroots campaign what it is understand that principle. Unfortunately, sometimes the media does not. The analysis on which the Post based its mistaken claim is fundamentally flawed in several ways.



I’m not overly concerned with the Post’s article in and of itself. But I am baffled that the Obama campaign is attacking the mainstream media and Obama administration ally, The Washington Post. 

President Obama’s campaign, like his leadership in the White House, is about inclusiveness. Our campaign is working to get as many Americans involved as possible—that’s the spirit of our elections and our nation. We’ve never solved anything with less democracy, and America has always expanded liberty and right, not limited them. There are enough forces trying to make it harder, not easier, for your voice to count. We don’t need inaccurate and misleading media reports that fail to count the registered voters who are already out there.

Does the Obama 2012 campaign really think it can pull off the whole “the MSM is working against us” meme? If the Obama campaign thinks even the The Washington Post – which is not conservative by any standard – is trying to make it “harder” for Obama to win, his campaign is going to find itself not just with fewer blacks and Hispanics on Obama’s side in 2012, but fewer allies all together.

The Obama 2012 campaign may have some slick web ads, but the campaign’s research briefings are going to have to get a whole lot better if it wants to compete with the Republican National Committee.