The American Spectator

It’s the narrative, stupid.

The media coverage of any Republican candidate for president by the “mainstream media” of America is specifically designed to help the Democrat — any Democrat — defeat the Republican and win the White House. No news there.

But how is it done? Specifically, what kind of stories are run and what message are they really intended to convey? Who writes them? What’s the narrative?

While a close look at any presidential campaign in recent years will do, let’s pick the last one that featured President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry (or, as he is known in these parts, Jean-Francois Kerry who by the way served in Vietnam). Let’s look at the nerve center of the liberal media, the New York Times. The Times has for decades been the liberal journalistic blacksmith shop where the templates of a presidential campaign have been forged. From its pages the template, like a well-crafted sword, is sent forth in duplicate form to the network news anchors and producers, to the other print outlets in the liberal media arsenal, to be used relentlessly in each and every story. It carves the narrative of what is really happening in the campaign. The narrative is composed of daily messages, like a movie director’s storyboards that become the scenes in a movie.

So how did this work in 2004?

Let’s begin at the beginning of the fall campaign. Kerry has already been nominated, Bush is about to receive his re-nomination in New York.

September 1, 2004:

p>Headline: DELEGATES MOCK KERRY’S WOUNDS, ANGERING VETERANS br> Reporter: Jim Rutenberg br> Message: Bush and the GOP hate military veterans. Veterans, thanks to Democrats, are being informed they have been targeted by the GOP for “insults.” One veteran says he is “outraged.” /p> p>Headline: IN RETREAT, BUSH SAYS U.S. WILL WIN WAR ON TERROR br> Reporter: Elisabeth Bumiller br> Message: Bush is an idiot. He screwed up in an interview with NBC and gave the impression the U.S. couldn’t win the war on terror. Then he “raced back” to his earlier statements in a speech to veterans. /p>