Raising Obama-Wright "flap" in article about McCain, Post again omitted Republican's ties to controversial pastors
Summary: Reporting on Sen. John McCain's "quest for the West" in the November presidential election, The Denver Post referred to the "breakup between [Sen.] Barack Obama and his former pastor," but again omitted mention of controversial statements made by televangelist John Hagee and pastor Rod Parsley, who have endorsed McCain.
In a May 4 article about Sen. John McCain's chances of winning Western states in November, The Denver Post reported that the "drama over the breakup between Barack Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has complicated the Illinois senator's chances among those independent voters who also like McCain." As in its May 1 editorial questioning whether Obama was "fit to be president" because of his association with Wright, the Post failed to mention controversial remarks by McCain endorsers such as televangelist John Hagee and World Harvest Church senior pastor Rod Parsley.
Colorado Media Matters on May 1 asked whether the Post would raise concerns about McCain similar to those it expressed about Obama in the editorial preceding McCain's May 2 appearance in Denver. The editorial also questioned whether Obama "is a good judge of character" because of his past relationship with Wright.
From the May 4 article by Chuck Plunkett in The Denver Post, "McCain faces a wild West":
Political scientists say McCain's quest for the West also is hampered by national issues.
"He has an uphill battle, and that uphill battle has several fronts," said Robert Eisinger, a political science professor at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. "One is a troubling economy. Two is an unpopular war. Three is an energized Democratic Party. Four is Republican Party elites who don't like him. Those four things collectively make winning many Western states a challenge.
"That said, the only way Sen. McCain can become President McCain is to win many of those Western states," Eisinger said.
Weighing McCain's chances without a clear Democratic opponent is tricky, experts say. Last week's drama over the breakup between Barack Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has complicated the Illinois senator's chances among those independent voters who also like McCain.
The pastor flap and Obama's now-infamous "bitter" comments regarding rural voters have made him "substantially weaker with the independents," said Kenneth Bickers, chairman of the University of Colorado's political science department.
After commenting on the Democratic race in local papers, Bickers said that he's "even gotten e-mails from people I don't even know who are expressing buyer remorse" about Obama. "That's interesting because I don't usually get those.
"I think McCain looks much, much stronger against Obama right now than anyone would have thought three months ago," Bickers said.
Even aside from the problems with Wright and "bittergate," Obama has struggled with Latino voters in Western states, setting up another possibility for McCain because of his moderate stance on the issue of immigration reform, said Lonna Rae Atkeson, a political scientist at the University of New Mexico.
Colorado Media Matters previously pointed out that a March 28 Rocky Mountain News front-page article omitted information about McCain's connections with Hagee and Parsley. Media Matters for America also has documented the disparity in national reporting on controversial statements made by Wright versus those made by Hagee and Parsley.
Despite Hagee's statements about Islam, women, and homosexuality, McCain acknowledged on the April 20 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos that he solicited Hagee's endorsement. While McCain answered, "Oh, probably. Sure" when asked whether it was "a mistake to solicit and accept" Hagee's endorsement, he went on to say of Hagee, "I'm glad to have his endorsement," as Media Matters has noted.
— C. H.
Posted to the web on Monday May 5, 2008 at 6:05 PM EST