Gary Hart: Media hyping Dem candidates' negatives David Edwards and Mike Sheehan

Published: Tuesday March 25, 2008



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Print This Email This Former senator Gary Hart is criticizing the sensationalistic tendencies of the media in the 2008 Democratic nomination process. Appearing on CNN's 'Newsroom,' the onetime Democratic presidential contender said, "The media plays a role in all this, and when producers or networks decide to recycle charge after charge after charge and go to the other campaign and ask for responses, that's what you're going to see on television." Hart, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), continued, "I don't mean to point the finger, but it's not as if the media plays no role here. If the media focuses on budget deficits, on casualties in Iraq and elsewhere, on the failures of Bush economics, then I think the voters will tune in." The Colorado Democrat, who halted his own run for the White House in 1987 after intense media scrutiny of an alleged extramarital affair, rued the constant news focus on videos of former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "If you see nothing but Rev. Wright hour after hour, day after day, and the Obama campaign is asked to respond to that endlessly, that's the news," said Hart, adding that such coverage makes it "very, very difficult for candidates to refocus on what is really important for this country's future."





