how to lose friends in the media

Threaten them—and that’s exactly what Barack Obama did the other day:

Democrat Barack Obama said on Sunday he would pursue a vigorous antitrust policy if he becomes U.S. president and singled out the media industry as one area where government regulators would need to be watchful as consolidation increases.

“I will assure that we will have an antitrust division that is serious about pursuing cases,” the Illinois senator told an audience of mostly senior citizens in Oregon.

“There are going to be areas, in the media for example where we’re seeing more and more consolidation, that I think (it) is legitimate to ask…is the consumer being served?”

 Matt Stoller sets up a likely scenario under an Obama administration [e.a.]:

It’s going to be really interesting to see how Obama’s administration takes on the media, and frankly, if I were a network executive, I’d be worried.  The White House and Brian Williams may find the Pentagon Pundit scandal to be nothing more than what happens on liberal blogs, but Obama is wondering if their business model is really “serving the consumer,” and what the Justice Department might have to say about that.

His commenters are appalled:

He just gave himself the Kiss of Death. Guaranteed. … But now Obama is going to make the press go nuclear on him because he just made the biggest mistake one could ever make. …

And that mistake is saying you are going breakup the media conglomerates. You just don’t do that before you are elected. Rest assured that every, and I mean every writer and columnist, and broadcaster has got their marching orders and if they still want to be employed by the very people who Obama wants to hurt they will write what the boss wants them to write, say what the boss wants them to say, and do everything in their power that the boss gets what he wants and that is the defeat of Obama.

 ————

This seems like the sort of issue where you play nice during the election and knife the big media corporations in the back once elected.

————

If I was one of those who sacrificed financially so I could give to Obama and then he pulls a bone head move like this I would certainly want my money back.

What kind of good politician pisses on the very feet of the press who has the power to, figuratively speaking, politically assassinate him?

Yeah, I kinda wonder about that, and I keep coming back to the idea that Obama is, shall we say, a little overconfident at this point, and in love with the image of himself as the progressive hero who will save America.

Meanehile, he whines about the media’s “unfair” treatment of his wife, who’s out there battling for him—and saying stupid, intelligence-insulting things—night and day.

If she chooses to speak for him—and she certainly doesn’t hold back—then she’s fair game. It’s not faaaaaiiiiiiiiir. Wah wah wah.