Video Retrospective: Elizabeth And John Edwards Take On Media Stars
January 30, 2008 -- 3:35 PM EST // //
Now that John Edwards has dropped out of the race, it's worth pausing to reconsider the role John and his wife played in what I think is one of the most under-appreciated stories of Campaign 2008.
Specifically: Thanks largely to the Edwards couple, aggressive push-back against right-wing (and even traditional) media figures went mainstream in Dem primary politics in a big way. Indeed, the Dem candidates adopted this sort of push-back as almost a de rigeur tactic, a way of throwing wrenches into the wingnut slime machine while simultaneously appealing to Dem primary voters, who can't get enough of this sort of stuff.
Let's remember that Elizabeth and John Edwards led the way on this. It began with John Edwards' boycott of Fox News, a move that was soon duplicated by other candidates, much to Fox's chagrin. It continued with Elizabeth's surprise attack on Ann Coulter on Hardball and her spirited emergence as a tormentor of other wingnut media stars and a kind of all around media noodge on her husband's behalf.
Some dismissed this stuff as little more than an ongoing stunt designed to raise money and win John attention. But the Edwards' gripe was frequently legit, and not just about right wing media figures. Their beef with the traditional media, too, often seemed fair, particularly when it came to the big news orgs' over-emphasis on the Hillary-Obama showdown and their willingness to traffic in winger-style narratives (see Haircut, $400). What's more, the pair made some strong points about our discourse in general, amplifying the liberal media critique.
And it made for some great TV. So, without further ado, here's our video retrospective of Elizabeth (and John) taking on the media.
Elizabeth launches a surprise attack on Ann Coulter, takes her on for calling her husband a "faggot" and worse...
Elizabeth hits Coulter again brutally hard, accusing her of polluting our discourse...
Elizabeth takes on Rush over the "phony soldiers" flap, skewering him for being a chicken-hawk and worse...
Elizabeth goes after Chris Matthews, attacks the press for continuing to cover the Dem primary as a two-person race even after his Iowa second-place finish...
Fox's Neil Cavuto practically breaks down in tears and begs the Dems boycotting the network to come back...
Let's hope we hear lots more from these two.
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