Alan Colmes on Saturday blamed Herman Cain for the media firestorm that occurred after Politico released its now infamous hit piece on the Republican presidential candidate.
As the panel on Fox News Watch discussed a Media Research Center study concerning the coverage of this incident versus how the press handled three sex scandals involving former President Clinton, Colmes actually said, "The reason the numbers are so different is because Herman Cain unlike Bill Clinton was out front on all of the media outlets talking about this" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JON SCOTT, HOST: The Media Research Center, which is a conservative watch dog group, it merits mention, looked at morning and evening newscasts on ABC, NBC, CBS. Here’s what they found: in the days since Politico broke this story, for Cain there were a total of 50 stories in the first three days. After the Paula Jones scandal broke for President Clinton back in 1994, there were a whopping one story.
ALAN COLMES: Can I address that?
ANDREA TANTAROS: No, I’m going to address it. It’s my turn.
COLMES: There's a reason for this.
TANTAROS: Because remember, the Clinton…
SCOTT: Three stories after Kathleen Willey accused the President of having groped her in 1997. And three stories after Juanita Broaddrick came forward in February of 1999 to say that Mr. Clinton had raped her. Alright, Andrea.
ANDREA TANTAROS: Well, that’s because the Clinton campaign told the media and the media obliged that this was a private matter, this was a distraction, even though she was a state employee and even though he ended up paying her $850,000, exponentially more than the Cain settlement, the media backed off that one. Now, I do agree the Cain campaign completely bungled this. As someone who’s worked on campaigns, who’s dealt with these types of scandals, they did screw it up from the start. But I will say this: there are no details yet, and I believe that if Politico had the details, and they would have been salacious, they would have used them. So that's telling me that this really isn't a big deal. Also the number of the settlement is very small. But, again, the AP went with an anonymous source on Wednesday. This is not good journalism here, just quoting all of these anonymous sources.
COLMES: I’d like to address those numbers. The reason the numbers are so different is because Herman Cain unlike Bill Clinton was out front on all of the media outlets talking about this, doing interview after interview as soon as this broke, changing the story numerous times. Bill Clinton, the accusee of who you mentioned previously, wasn't out talking about it. Herman Cain has created a media firestorm because of the way he’s reacted to it.
Yeah, Cain's reaction is why Politico has now run more stories on this subject in the past six days than they did Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's ties to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers or his connection to convicted real estate developer Tony Rezko.
It's also why CNN has now covered this so-called scandal more than it did Obama's association with Ayers, Rezko, and the America-hating Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Having watched Colmes for years, I've always wondered if he really believes the nonsense that comes out of his mouth when there's a microphone near it, or if he's just one of the Left's best shills.
Readers are encouraged to review Scott Whitlock's entire report "Networks Hit Cain Story 50 Times in Less Than Four Days; Ignored Clinton Scandals."
