Ignoring other conservative condemnations of liberal media bias, CNN's Brooke Baldwin pulled tape of former President George H. W. Bush all the way from 1992 ranting about the press – and then snidely pointed out how it "did not help" him.
"[C]omplaining about the media did not help Bush One. He lost his bid for re-election," noted Baldwin on Monday afternoon's Newsroom, who compared Paul Ryan's claim of media bias on Sunday to Bush's 1992 rant. So Ryan hitting out at the media won't help Team Romney? [Video below the break. Audio here.]
CNN's phoney-conservative commentator David Frum offered a half-decent answer, but dumped on Mitt Romney in the process. "[T]he Republican base dislikes the major national media more than I think it likes its actual candidate. So in that sense it can generate enthusiasm," he answered Baldwin. Frum passes for a "conservative" at CNN.
Baldwin, of course, could have reported Brent Bozell's letter to the networks excoriating them for "rigging this election."
"We have never witnessed a more brazen and complete attempt by the media to decide the outcome of a presidential election," Bozell wrote. "For 25 years, the Media Research Center has been documenting liberal media bias daily. During that time, we have covered seven presidential elections including this one. We have never seen it this bad."
A transcript of the segment, which aired on October 1 on CNN Newsroom at 3:05 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
BROOKE BALDWIN: Speaking of the polls, and there are a lot of polls, you know this, and especially a lot of Republicans saying, you know, hey, these polls that show the President leading in these multiple swing states. No, they say they're bogus, they skew Democratic. I heard Paul Ryan complaining about the media yesterday. We were sort of reminded of this guy running for re-election in 1992. Remember this?
(Video Clip)
Former President GEORGE H. W. BUSH: If you haven't detected, I'm a little sore at the national media. Let me tell you something –
(Cheering)
BUSH: I better be careful. I better not say that. I got – they're mad at me anyway. I love my favorite bumper sticker, "Annoy the Media, Re-elect Bush."
(End Video Clip)
BALDWIN: Oh, the media, David Frum, complaining about the media did not help Bush One. He lost his bid for re-election. Can media bashing help Romney, help Ryan? Do you think it is going to work?
DAVID FRUM: It can help them in the sense that it gets – the Republican base dislikes the major national media more than I think it likes its actual candidate. So in that sense it can generate enthusiasm. On the polls –
BALDWIN: Wait, can we say that again? You think they dislike the national media more than they like their actual candidates? Did I hear you correctly?
FRUM: You did. So I think that one of Romney's perpetual challenges, it's been very detrimental to him, because it prevents him from acting like the nominee. He in many ways has been forced again and again to act as if he's still running for the nomination, including what I think was the very unwise decision to choose Paul Ryan as his running mate, thus tie himself to the very bold if that's the word you want, Ryan plan. I would have gone for something more cautious myself.
But on these polls, the Republicans have this much of a case. When you're a pollster, you have to make a decision what will the electorate look like? And by definition, you don't know the answer to that question. So what you end up doing is extrapolating from the last election or two or three. But the past is not usually a good guide to these kinds of things. And elections and voting patterns are very subject to sudden changes. In 2004 and 2008 we had enormous voter turnout, about 60 percent, more than 120 million people. Will 2012 look like that or will it look like previous elections where we had voter turnout under 55 percent. And depending on what assumption you make, you get very different results. But what's a pollster to do, they end up simply projecting forward what happened last time.
