Great quote by Obama on how the media creates stereotypes

October 15th, 2008

This is from an article in the upcoming issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Working for the Working-Class Vote. By Matt Bai, it’s about Obama’s quest to win over white rural voters. It’s a good piece overall - it reminds me of why Obama’s candidacy was so compelling in the first place. I especially like this part, where Obama talks about how he’s being portrayed by a number of major media outlets:

“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls,” Obama told me. “If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?

“I guess the point I’m making,” he went on, “is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it’s powerful.”

Powerful - and scary.

Entry Filed under: Belief and bias