Edwards Adviser Trippi Points a Finger at the Press

-snip-

NEW ORLEANS -- Standing outside in a New Orleans neighborhood awaiting John Edwards's speech here today, one of his senior advisers said that the central challenge of the campaign -- and a cause of its eventual failure -- revolved around efforts to "break through" in the media when so much was focused on the duel between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

"When the press wants to cover a two person race, its very tough for the third candidate," Joe Trippi said. "To break through in that situation you have to get edgy, get harsher, be more strident - and we did and it would work for a few days and then the media would turn their heads the other way.

"What were we supposed to do, set ourselves on fire?"

-sbip-

The campaign agonized over the decision as many had come to think of it as a moral crusade as much as a presidential campaign, Trippi said. Normal political calculations did not apply.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/30/edwards_aviser_trippi_points_a.html

It's Tradition.

He joined the campaign long after the selection of the two "acceptable" candidates.

I bet Joe Trippi and/or his associates made a ton of money off of Edwards

Msongs

edwards campaign was starved to death. it was a tree that fell in the forest and there was no one there to hear it.

The media, for the most part, ignored John Edwards.



Peace:thumbsup:

John did not fail because of his own actions or his position on highly relevant issues. As evil as the MSM is, they of course have got you to pick from the 2 candidates they want you to vote for, that to be is a failure on your part and yet another triumph of the MSM picking your President for you.

Now, there are 3 or 4 (Romney does not stand a chance) who are pretty much the same. I do not see much difference between HRC, Obama and "Bomb bomb bomb Iran" McCain.

equal media exposure for Edwards would have made a big difference, but apparently the one who talks the talk about the issues does not matter. It is more important to show the 'reality tv' drama bullshit between HRC and BO!

Has he ever won anything?

Trippy looked doped up every time I saw him on TV

As I have been posting here so many times, I called on all the candidates, including Biden, Dodd and Richardson to start visiting the "minor" states of Super Duper Tuesday and Edwards, apparently did, yesterday was in Oklahoma and Missouri and Minnesota. The local media gave him a of cover just for visiting and for the warm welcome he received in a bone chilling weather. No doubt, the same occurred in the other states.

But, as Edwards acknowledged in his speech today, he already knew that he was going to quit, er, suspend, when he visited us.

There are a lot more voters watching their local news than CNN and MSNBC.

This race will be studied by political strategists for years to come, and they will find that this statement is absolutely born out by the facts.

Anyone who is unable to grasp the concept that the MSM ordained the Obama/Clinton race, and withheld their coverage of all the other candidates is blind.

That is why the next President must reform the FCC and roll back media consolidations, if we are ever to have another election in which the MSM does not play an inordinate role in choosing our next nominees.

Later they would use the polls to justify their lack of coverage of Edwards but the reason the polls became what they were was because the media selected two candidates and many folks thought it was only a two candidate race.

Thanks for posting that. Why did the corporations select Obama and Hillary? We will soon find out. :( :scared:

It's not about democracy by "we the people", it's about making history. And"making history" means ratings and profit to corporate media. We've been sold out again.

it probably wouldv'e helped if they set themselves on fire! Sorry, I don't mean to make light of the situation, but that's how bad our media situation is, and they have real influence over people. However, I do think that could change with the internet content being controlled more and more by we the American people instead of corporations, we shall see.

I don't see it as very helpful to blame others for our failures, even if they may have had a significant impact. It is much more helpful to look at what went wrong and work to change that in meaningful ways. John Edwards was a good candidate and his message has influenced the entire race. But to say that it failed just because he couldn't get enough attention just flies in the face of his own stance on personal responsibility.

As a frustrated Edwards supporter, it was obvious to us all that the media either wouldn't cover him or when they did, it was hostile. This election laid bare how the corporate media will only do the bidding of the insurance companies, the drug companies and the oil companies. How do we all feel about this? This is the real news of this so-called election. Our masters have told us who our choices are. We are not free and this election process is a sham.

and i do not disagree that there is a tremendous amount of this going on. But i get my news from sources that are publicly supported and that i would not consider the corporate media (though you may disagree with me on that). He did not get much coverage there either.
I think that there were a lot of factors at work here. I hope that Edwards, who is young and hopefully will run again in the future, can step back and look at all of the reasons that his campaign failed and not just take the position that the corporate media are the only ones to blame.
I know that his very dedicated supporters are very sad today.

It's not just a matter of opinion.

and implies there is a reasonably level playing field.

The evidence strongly indicates that powerful media did not offer Edwards a level playing field, and he certainly had no power to force the CEOs to change that.

The key to learning from a situation, which any non-Republican knows, is to properly identify cause and effect, something quite distinct from "blaming" someone or some thing that does not account for the observed consequences.

Trippi's plan for Edwards '08 was virtually identical to Dean '04. And look how well that went.
Joe Trippi is an incompetent dolt. He should never be allowed near another campaign ever again.

Well... maybe he can work for a RePuke campaign. In that case, we won't mind if he screws up yet again.

One word: McCain

His campaign was virtually dead in December. Almost no media exposure. Now look at it now.

Taking that into account, you can't blame the media for the failure of the Edwards campaign.