Obama now faces his biggest media challenge

Now, Sen. Barack Obama will face his most significant media challenge.

He has all but sewn up the Democratic nomination, and can look ahead to taking on Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Illinois’ Obama has been a media favorite ever since he started his campaign and consistently got more favorable press reviews than his chief Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Much of Obama’s success stemmed from his uncanny ability to charm the media and, through them, the voters, who often make up their minds based on what they see and read about a candidate.

While Clinton has resisted calls to drop out of the race, the media have concluded that the shouting is over. Last week, Time magazine published a photo on the cover of a grinning Obama. The blurb hammered home the point: “And the winner is…”

Obama’s task

To keep the momentum going, Obama will have to understand — every day — that he will face even more media scrutiny.
Mainly, he will have to try harder to be as assertive as possible. Journalists — especially the New York Times’ (NYT) brilliant, acerbic columnist Maureen Dowd — have hounded him and suggested that has looked weak because he couldn’t vanquish Clinton.

Obama will have to realize that whatever he accomplished in the Democratic primaries will now pale against the sexier news peg: that he may not be presidential material because he couldn’t convince Clinton to drop out of the race.

Then there is the challenge posed by McCain. Obama will be taking on an adversary who is also very popular with reporters. McCain is often seen as having a “one-of-the-boys” appeal with journalists.

I witnessed the McCain phenomenon first-hand a few years ago at a magazine conference in Puerto Rico. The night before he was scheduled to deliver his remarks to a ballroom full of influential editors and publishers, he spent a few hours shooting craps at a casino. McCain was having a good night and punctuated his successful throws by throwing his fist in the air triumphantly and shouting to the fascinated press corps who watched his every move.

McCain’s popularity sometimes surfaces in bizarre ways. TVNewser reported Friday that a 24-year-old Fox News Channel production assistant was fired after she was overheard telling him, “I voted for you in the primary; you’re going to win.” (Fox, like MarketWatch, the publisher of this column, is a division of News Corp..) McCain, appearing at the time at Time magazine’s Time 100 gala, was in turn overheard saying to her, “You’re not supposed to reveal that.”

Popularity

Recently, when the New York Times published a story loosely insinuating that McCain may have had an improper relationship with a female lobbyist, the paper was blasted by politicians and members of the media alike. They saw it as a cheap shot, partly because McCain had built up so much good will.

I doubt that the sympathetic outpouring on McCain’s behalf would have been so strong if a rather unpopular politician had been the target.

Yes, America, for better or worse, journalists are human, too, and we sometimes play favorites in our coverage.

Baggage

Obama must be rather cynical about the media by now. He was their favorite son early in his campaign and yet the more successful he was in the primaries, the more skeptical journalists acted toward him.

Obama is certainly smart and savvy enough to recognize that once the media build you up to unrealistic proportions, the only direction that you can go is south.

McCain’s opportunistic camp will surely have noticed that Obama was unable to put away the highly determined Clinton, and even allowed her to dictate the media debate in such industrial states as Pennsylvania.

That means Obama will have to convince reporters that he can thwart McCain. McCain has proven himself to be just as dogged as Clinton — remember, McCain was given up for dead shortly before the primary season began late last year. Undercapitalized and plagued by image problems, McCain survived on grit and thrived by demonstrating his poise under pressure.

Obama took a different route with the media. He burst from the Iowa caucus, winning stunningly and basically ending any discussion of whether a man of color could win a national election. Obama relied on wowing crowds — especially young people and other traditionally disenfranchised voters — on the strength of his inspirational speeches.

Now that Obama is on top, he’ll need more than inspirational speeches to continue to dazzle the media.

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Who will the media favor, McCain or Obama?

MONDAY REPORT CARD: The New York Times sent shock waves through the media biz last week when Executive Editor Bill Keller said that the paper would have to lay off a small number of employees. Whenever the Times does anything significant, the industry notices. The Times continues to have a Zeus-like standing among journalists. I wonder if this sort of bombshell will change that thinking at some point.

READERS RESPOND to my column asking what the Fox Business Network will have to do trump CNBC:

“Not much.”

– Ben Black

– Jon Friedman is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in New York. Media Web appears on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Feel free to send email to jfriedman@marketwatch.com.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Unfortunately, the media has NO IDEA about the really important qualities of a good leader! What they are: maturity, and the ability to sustain a non-anxious, non-reactive presence in the face of adversity–such as media attacks or hurricanes! In other words, a good leader does not blow with the media wind, but stays with his/her own core values. This signals authenticity to the public, and grace under pressure–two qualities we all respond to and yearn for! Poor Hillary Clinton has been so concerned about her image, and has been taking advice right and left about how to (and how not to) be, that she has completely forgotten HERSELF! McCain used to have a true core of self, but in recent years his pandering to Bush and Co. has all but erased that. Obama, alone among the candidates, has a true voice. It is the same voice whether speaking or writing! People recognize and respond positively to that–whether they know or not what it is that attracts them. This is so much more than charisma, which is quite shallow!

So don’t hold your breath for Obama to pander to the presses’ latest attack or salvo! He is the real deal! And those of you who pay attention know that!!!!

Kate Madison, LCSW
Depoe Bay, Oregon

What a terrible piece of insider garbage. Here is my favorite line:

“Much of Obama’s success stemmed from his uncanny ability to charm the media and, through them, the voters, who often make up their minds based on what they see and read about a candidate”.

In other words, “We at the media tell you what you think based on what we write and what we tell you we are seeing.” Where is George Orwell?

A large part of Obama’s success has come from his ability to reach out to voters directly and appeal to their strong desire for change and fresh leadership. Sure Hillary has been a tough opponent but she is a great candidate who once appeared unstoppable.

McCain, on the other hand, is not a great candidate. The love affair the press has with him will fade with their ratings if they continue to be so out of touch with the people.

No need for Obama to “dazzle”the media. He only has to keep convincing voters that he can unite our country and overcome decades of stupid, divisive politics and policies. Despite this writer’s contradictory assertions and bloated sense of his own importance–and that of some of his corporate mainstream colleagues–it is voters not the media that elect presidents.

Very little is said about the USA’s voting pattern, Example, when at war, like now, pick a war hero, we have done this since Washington, Kennedy-PT109, dealing in the Soviet cold war. When the nation suffered from polio, it was, polio victim FDR. Cancer deaths, in the top three killers, McCain also has cancer. 6000 people everyday this turn 60 years old, population getting older and more for comfort zones than change. There is no umbrella effect with the media other than ratings that earn paychecks, which ever way the wind blows so goes the media, follow the money. I like the Japanese news in English, straight forward no frills, no BS, just the facts Man! Much better than O’Really trying to be foxy, or the Lone wolf on CNN, even BBC covers the American Election more fair and balanced, nothing beats the news from Japan for detailed coverage. Col. Powell, or Condi has a better chance than no experience Obama. No one wants to clean up the mess in Iraq, Afghan, or Lebenon, or Gaza. McCain says He will win the war in his first term. American loves winners, McCain is the Historical vote for the office.