Is there a gap between Romney and grassroots indie media?

Screen snip from 2008 video of exchange between Romney and an Associated Press staffer. Topic of discussion: lobbyists.Gov. Mitt Romney spoke to the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and Newspaper Association of America Luncheon on Wednesday, bemoaning the lack of editors and “quality control” in new media. Romney said:

“Some people thus welcome the tumult in your industry, heralding the new voices and the unfiltered or supposedly unbiased sources…Frankly, in some of the new media, I find myself missing the presence of editors to exercise quality control.”

The governor is doing what many Republicans do—courting approval from a sector that will never deal objectively with any candidate who isn’t left of center.

Does Romney realize he is in fact creating a gap between himself and the indie media he will ultimately need?

How soon Romney forgets. Ah, well, once August passes and the probable Romney-Obama match ensues, the governor’s memory will receive a sizable jolt.

It was only 4 short years ago that Romney experienced an exchange with a reporter who worked for the Associated Press, a wire service with tentacles in every media sector. The reporter interrupted Romney with an accusation. The AP staffer believed Romney had a lobbyist working on his campaign; the governor denied it repeatedly.

The video of the Romney-AP reporter exchange from 2008 is still posted on YouTube, but embedding it has been suspended.

Media still don’t make much of President Barack Obama’s lobbyists. Patrick Gaspard, union lobbyist who served as Obama’s political director in the White House, was one in number of lobbyists feeding at the taxpayer funded trough.

Will the Associated Press grill the president who campaigned on denying influence by lobbyists?

Although Democrats nurture the blogosphere and creatives in general, Republicans are often clueless about the power structure the Left has built.

Romney didn’t court a sizable portion of conservative media as he began to take his messaging to the public.

Romney’s comments about “quality control” suggest a worrisome gap between the candidate and the grassroots media he will need if he becomes the nominee—he will in fact need it even more if he wins the presidency.

His comments also suggest gullibility. In the past week, a major TV network admitted selectively editing a video that inflamed racial tensions. That inflammation was completely unnecessary because the Trayvon Martin shooting had nothing to do with racism, based on information released so far. Politicos exploited the death of a teen for purely political ends.

Just this week, the chair of the Associated Press board introduced Obama to an audience with a bio that sounded more like a hymn of praise.

Romney was introduced by another board member and the governor also received praises, though not quite on the lofty level of those directed at Obama.

Many conservatives outside the Beltway sphere are struggling to reconcile themselves to Romney as likely GOP nominee. Lobbing snarkisms at indie media, particularly in light of the near complete lack of ethics and integrity as well as accuracy in dinosaur media, is hardly a way for any candidate to draw support from a sector he will need whether he admits it or not in months and perhaps years to come.

Related

Heritage Foundation discloses AP outsourcing… (The US Report)

Gov. Romney speaks to news editors (C-Span)

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/April 5, 2012)

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