In Just Four Days, Networks Devote 13 Minutes to 'Campaign Controversy' of Bachmann Migraines
Over a span of just four days, the three major networks devoted 12 minutes and 59 seconds to highlighting the "campaign controversy" of Michele Bachmann's migraines. The report first appeared online and then was quickly picked up on ABC, NBC and CBS. On Wednesday, Good Morning America's Robin Roberts warned, " But now a new story is raising questions about her health."
On NBC's Today, Kelly O'Donnell insisted, "A report on Michele Bachmann's struggle with migraines is a political headache on the campaign trail." In total, the story of a relatively minor medical condition was featured on GMA, Today, World News, Nightly News and CBS's Early Show.
O'Donnell allowed, "Doctors say migraines are common and treatable with medication but can be brought on by stress."
On the July 20 World News, David Muir solemnly wondered, "And here's the question. Have they gotten in the way of her job before? Would they get in the way if elected president?"
In the same show, Jon Karl made sure label the Daily Caller, the source of the story: "The issue was first raised Monday be the conservative Daily Caller website, which quoted anonymous sources saying Bachmann frequently suffers from incapacitating headaches."
Both Today and Early show used the same description os the site as a "conservative" web page. "Liberal" is an ideological tag not as freely thrown around.
On the Early Show, Jan Crawford highlighted a possible double standard: "And some liberals said the entire report was sexist, because its tone implied that as a woman, Bachmann was weak and physically unfit for the job. As the only woman in the race, Bachmann has already gotten questions some say wouldn't be asked of a man."
(Joe Biden, it should be pointed out, has previously suffered from repeated brain aneurisms.)
A transcript of the July 20 Today show segment can be found below:
MATT LAUER: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is surging in the early presidential polls, but today she's facing some questions about her health and how it might affect her campaign and possible presidency. Kelly O'Donnell is NBC's Capitol Hill correspondent. Kelly, good morning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Political Headache; Bachmann Denies "Incapacitating" Migraine Report]
KELLY O'DONNELL: Good morning, Matt. Well you know, Michele Bachmann is somewhere between contender and front-runner and with that comes a lot of attention and some negative stories. Now what's interesting is Bachmann and her campaign have often avoided or refused to comment about some of that criticism. But when it came to her health, she responded quickly.
MICHELE BACHMANN: Don't give up!
O'DONNELL: This time the questions have nothing to do with her politics.
BACHMANN: I prescribe medication that I take on occasion whenever symptoms arise, and they keep my migraines under control.
O'DONNELL: A report on Michele Bachmann's struggle with migraines is a political headache on the campaign trail.
BACHMANN: But I'd like to be abundantly clear, my ability to function effectively will not affect – will not affect my ability to serve as commander in chief.
O'DONNELL: In South Carolina on Tuesday...
BACHMANN: This is a bold step.
O'DONNELL: ...Bachmann faced questions about that report, saying her migraines can be, quote, 'incapacitating.' A conservative website, The Daily Caller, based its story on accounts from anonymous former Bachmann aides. Reporter Jonathan Strong:
JONATHAN STRONG: The headaches have resulted in her going to the hospital at least three times that we know of. And in one case, she missed congressional votes on the day that she was hospitalized.
O'DONNELL: Bachmann chose to take this head on, insisting migraines do not harm her candidacy.
BACHMANN: Since entering this campaign for the presidency, I have maintained a full schedule.
O'DONNELL: Strong said his unnamed sources have their own political agenda.
STRONG: These are Republicans who worry that Barack Obama could skate away with re-election if this blew up during the general election campaign.
O'DONNELL: Campaigning last summer, Bachmann's hometown paper reported that she cancelled an event and was hospitalized briefly with an undisclosed illness. Tuesday, Bachmann tried to offer an upbeat spin, making this about public education rather than damage control.
BACHMANN: The many questions I have received on this subject have allowed me to discuss this important condition that impacts many Americans and individuals in nearly one in four American households.
O'DONNELL: Doctors say migraines are common and treatable with medication but can be brought on by stress.
PERRY RICHARDSON [DOCTOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL]: The body is telling you, you need sleep or needing to eat or needing to reduce the stress levels.
O'DONNELL: And that's where the politics comes in.
STUART ROTHENBERG: It goes to the heart of the question of her ability to serve. And her condition may not be a problem, or it may be a big problem. That's why she has to come clean.
O'DONNELL: And the health of candidates is often a subject in campaigns. I was in the room when medical records were shown to reporters for John McCain or John Kerry, but it usually doesn't happen this early. Bachmann and her campaign say that they may be pressured to provide more information, like what types of medication she takes, but they say it's not an issue now. Matt.
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Comments
Well, this was 100%
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 1:38pm.
Well, this was 100% predictable, so what's the big deal???
The Vet is near incapacitated from Syphilitic Feverings.
Submitted by The Vet on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 1:56pm.
As well as unable to sit due to the worst case of the butt warts in the Western Pacific. And yet he manages to whoop killa's tushie at checkers once a week, standing, shivering, and hoot hollering what with the Tourettes and all... Now.... We.... Say... What were we talking about again?
Jeeez Vet - you OK??? Did you
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:08pm.
Jeeez Vet - you OK??? Did you lose your penecillan pills?? And you've got to pay attention to those butt warts too, because you don't want them to get infected!!! Maybe we should go on strike and cancell our checkers games for a while, so that you can heal up.............I don't like seeing you in this shape!!!
And - seriously - I did have a bout of 'flesh-eating virus' a few years ago over here - stemming from a very small cut on my index finger. The thing just about killed me and put me in the hospital for 6 days and nights - and the whole thing happened in a matter of hours!!! Very virulent and vicious.......and scary too!!!
So keep those butt warts cleaned and medicated..............I'll take a pass on the checkers games.
Here we go again
Submitted by Herbster on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 1:48pm.
Here we go again. The left wing media setting up a migrane straw man....which, of course, makes it a fact if it repeated often enough. If Bachmann's numbers continue to improve, she (And her family) will get the "Full Palin" treatmant. Lies will become fact and the "Facts" will be used to denigrate this wonderful woman. I find it interesting that the leftist media has not been going after Romney. Is it because he is a lesser threat to the current occupant of the White House than Bachmann? No matter who the Republicans run, they will be up against not just the corrupt politics of the current administration - Soros, ACORN, SEIU, etc., but also the enabling media that worships at the altar of the chosen one.
Pray for our nation......while we still can.
Compared
Submitted by grammajane on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 1:53pm.
Compared to JFK and his numerous pills taken daily and Ted Kennedy and his alcohol drinking and acting like a fool daily, Bachman's headaches seem under control. Only the msm would make a big deal out of it.
Obama's health issues
Submitted by JohnPaulus on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:01pm.
Perhaps the media ought to pay attention to some of Obama's health issues- it looks as if he's turned to chain smoking again despite his and his wife's earlier claims that he quit. You can be that if Michele Bachmann was a cigarette smoker we'd be reading about the poor example she was setting.
It reminds one back in the days of the 2002 and 2006 campaigns where the media kept bringing up Bush's allege drug use, but somehow completely ignored Obama's admittance that he used cocaine. The media are hypocrites.
"That's why she has to come clean"?
Submitted by UpNorth on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:03pm.
She's a congressperson, how about you guys at the Nothing But Crap network ask President Present to come clean about his cocaine use? His terrorist connections? His devotion to Black Liberation Theology?
Or do something novel, ask about his grades, and financing while attending one of the more expensive institutions of "higher" learning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE:
Submitted by GregE on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:37pm.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Political Headache; Bachmann Denies "Incapacitating" Migraine Report]
My Headline: "President Obama Denies Nation-'Incapacitating' Policies"
#
"The issue was first raised Monday be the conservative Daily Caller website, which quoted anonymous sources saying Bachmann frequently suffers from incapacitating headaches."
The next issue was raised by GregE, who didn't need to quote anyone else, observing for himself that the United States continuously suffers from a currently incapacitating president.
If the left want to dig up
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:32pm.
If the left want to dig up scandal, they can investigate Obama's overseas foreign contributions to his campaign. If not, then they're just the political Democratic hacks we all know them to be.
This headline is misleading. You said "13 minutes."
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:34pm.
Yet the record shows it was 12 minutes and 59 seconds. - Yours truly, Incestmo.
Let me guess... Unfit to serve!
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 2:51pm.
Let me guess, the MSM is setting up an argument of why Bachmann is a bad choice for President. She may suffer while in office and be unfit to serve!
But, hay, let's just forget that Roosevelt was a paraplegic who suffered the lasting effects of Polio, a neurological disease which he contracted as an adult and which continued to afflict him for the rest of his life (for example, after meeting with Stalin in 1943, he was diagnosed with hypertension, acute bronchitis, heart failure and pulmonary disease, all because of that Polio); Kennedy suffered from chronic back pain, which was treated with almost daily doses of narcotics, as well as Addison’s disease, an adrenal gland affliction; Calvin Coolidge suffered from chronic depression after the death of his son; Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 (four years before he was elected); and Grover Cleavland had cancer, which necessitated the removal of the roof of his mouth up to his left eye, while in office. But, hay, never mind that all of this happened to Presidents in the past before, and during, their terms in office and, yet, they still managed to serve, and quite effectively, I may add. Michele Bachmann suffers from migraines! How can she possibly serve effectively?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Never a mention of how a
Submitted by ant on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 8:24pm.
Never a mention of how a 'historical' Marxist female Speaker of the House might be affected by menopause, botox injections, or the regular shedding of skin that reptiles must do. Let alone, everything she's ever done or said.
funny
Submitted by 10ksnooker on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 3:28pm.
Is it any wonder that the entire country doesn't have Obama migraine by now?
I wonder what coke does to a president? After-all, he admitted it in his book, and hasn't said it stopped.
It's a controversy
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 3:42pm.
because they have made it one.
And after they beat the drum on this a while longer we will be hearing that "the questions are not going away."
Left Unsaid
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 5:51pm.
"...and anytime we feel those questions are going away, we'll raise them again" (as a service to the Obama Re-election Campaign).
I would be more than happy to discuss migraine headaches...
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 5:10pm.
...as a medical condition to anybody on this board..
ANY candidate who comes under this kind of scrutiny should ask where their medical records were obtained and under what circumstances. Unauthorized possession or use of medical records is a serious criminal and civil offense that carries potentially heavy fines and/or jail time. I urge all candidates to pursue the maximum penalties against those who release, possess or use their medical records without properly executed permission documents.
If that idiot at Daily Caller did obtain Mrs. Bachmann's medical records without authorization, then she should pursue appropriate legal avenues.
Your medical moment over, and I will step off the soap box.
Very true Doc
Submitted by Rukus on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 6:18pm.
Maybe a HIPPA compliance officer needs to weigh in on this, that would be very interesting. Will be surprised if JACO isn't asking questions.
Incapacitated Presidential candidates........
Submitted by big.league.slider on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 1:19am.
Bachmann may have occasional migraines, but would you trust this Presidential candidate with the nuclear football?
Nurse Ratchett??? If we could
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 2:34am.
Nurse Ratchett??? If we could only get her into the bedroom with some of these enemies of ours..........she would have their balls in a lockbox in no time at all............and they would be neutered!!!!
Wow!
Submitted by chronic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:18pm.
I'm not sure what's funnier here, that killa is trying to support Bachman while at the same time completely degrading her as a woman. ("If we could only get her into the bedroom...")
What a story again provided by newsbusters about how the MSM repeats eachother when they cover stories! ... Shocker, now that's some in depth reporting. So over a span of 4 days times 24 hours a day times 4 channels = 384 hours of time the networks had to fill, so Bachman got as much time as the police shooting a bear out of a tree. And the transcript even says how McCain and Kerrys' medical records were brought up in their campaign so don't feel like they are unfairly attacking her. If you want to be upset with anything be angry at the system that we operate in where politics is mud-flinging and the news is a propoganda reel. Or else there would be some diversity in the reporting, and don't say Fox News is the only maverick telling the truth because all the pundits on that channel say the same thing so they are just as extreme as the MSM, onlyt pursuing a different message.
I would not say that Obama is right, but he is a lot more reasonable than most politicians. Extermes are dangerous no matter what side you are on and this site is just as guilty as Fox or the MSM.
The hospital called,
Submitted by UpNorth on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:38pm.
under Obamacare, you can now come in for the skin grafts on your tongue.
Extremes are dangerous, that's why 0 really should learn to read polls, before he tries to sell that 80% figure for those that agree with him. Reasonable, my a$$...
And how much time has the MSM paid focusing on
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 12:47pm.
Obama's locked medical records? Oh right, he got a doctor's note which is more than sufficient, NOT!
Bachmann is no Sarah Palin.... not even close
Submitted by JamesPhilip on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 7:49pm.
Sarah Palin has a movie, so now Bachmann has to have one too? Yikes.
Isn't mimicking the hair, the words, the bus, the clothes and the ideas bad enough?
Now this?
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/07/23/iowa-ads-will-push-bach...
I call bull crap... http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/10/04/fire-heartland-sarah-pal...
And We are Surprised - NOT!!!
Submitted by scottyusmc on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 7:48am.
An objective investigation into the health of any potential Presidential candidate is valid and conducted with integrity and complete objectivity due to the nature and sensitivity of the information. That being said – Unfortunately this biased driven media culture cannot conduct such an investigation with integrity since it only investigates one side of the political landscape. It is clear to all with eyes that this media have picked their horse in this race and will buttress their side against all legitimate inquiry while tearing down all opposition. They do not deserve the protections provided to them in the Constitution. They are propaganda hacks of the highest order!!!