Media feeding frenzy: Chris Christie's keynote address earns sour marks
Comments (5) | 
Print | Originally published: Aug 29, 2012 - 4:40 pm
The print media hammered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday for his keynote address the previous night at the Republican National Convention. The prevailing sentiment surrounding Christie's speech is that he spent too much of his 24-minute address talking about himself and not enough time speaking about GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
A cadre of striking headlines illustrates the widespread dissatisfaction with Christie's remarks:
Politico: "Chris Christie's flop at the GOP convention"
New Yorker: "Disturbed man gets past convention security, gives keynote address"
CBS News: "Jersey bore"
Washington Post: "Chris Christie's failed advertisement"
New York Times: "Chris Christie: But enough about Mitt, let's talk about me"
For those tempted to cite the Christie-bashing as an instance of liberal media bias, an easy rebuke would be to point to the positive press Ann Romney's Tuesday speech generated as proof the media doesn't have it in for conservatives. But former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani offered his own theory: the media mauled Christie because Ann Romney was essentially off-limits.
Speaking Wednesday to Fox News, Giuliani said, “(Media members) don’t like (Christie's) message, they don’t like what he’s trying to do and they certainly don’t want to see (Mitt) Romney win. So they gotta tear down something. They couldn’t really tear down Mrs. Romney’s speech. First of all, it would have been insensitive to attack her. Second, she gave a great speech and it would have been very hard to attack her. So they pick on Chris, who is a target. … I don’t think Chris could win, at least not with the liberal media."
J.G. Askar is a graduate of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and member of the Utah State Bar. Contact him at jaskar@desnews.com or 801-236-6051.
