iOS app Android app More  Eric Boehlert   The Media Myth
Surrounding Obama's Negative Campaign  Posted: 08/07/2012 1:29
pm  In his most recent column, the New York Times' Ross Douthat
repeated a common media charge about what a harsh campaign
President Obama is running this year. Dubbing the president "Mr.
Negative," Douthat bemoaned what he saw as Obama's nasty
Nixonian streak and a campaign that Douthat claims "started out
negative and has escalated to frank character assassination."
This kind of dire rhetoric has become quite common among Beltway
pundits and reporters, along with right-wing commentators.
Collectively, they have formed a tight-knit narrative about what
an almost shockingly negative campaign Obama is running, and how
the harsh tone represents the polar opposite of Obama's feel-
good run in 2008.  The media chatter really has become
deafening. A New York Times news report last month emphasized
how both campaigns have gone "relentlessly negative," while a
Miami Herald column trumpeted Obama's