Clinton-Backing Senator Bemoans Media's Scandal Coverage

by The Huffington Post News Team [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

Senator Robert Menendez, a key surrogate for Hillary Clinton, said on Thursday that it was time for the media to move on from the scandal and conflict coverage of the presidential campaign and begin focusing its attentions on issues like Iraq.

"The problem is, of course, that we have the media, which is more interested in conflict than substance at the end of the day, and that is the challenge," the senator told The Huffington Post. "Of course if you only stuck to the issues and never deviated it would be hard for the media to find the opening. But the reality is that the nature of the political campaigns is giving us a different set of circumstances."

Menendez was speaking at a conference with fellow Sens. Jim Webb and Frank Lautenberg marking the fifth anniversary of President Bush's declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iraq. Speaking before a gathering of congressional reporters (as many journalists were in attendance as congressional aides), he argued "it [was] not enough to put Iraq center-stage only when Gen. Petraeus comes into town," and that "too often the war fades from our newscasts and our public thought unless you are a family who has a soldier there."

In making his comments, Menendez became the second senator in as many days to criticize the media for a lack of political substance. On MSNBC yesterday, John Kerry, an Obama supporter, ripped into the network for focusing intensely on the issue of Obama's controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

"Can I say something to you?" Kerry asked. "You folks need to let go of this. Television needs to stop dwelling on something that is in the past. I thought Barack Obama yesterday gave America his second big presidential moment of this campaign. The first when he spoke out about the issue of race. The second yesterday, when he made it clear, every one of the statements of the minister are just unacceptable. They're not the person that he knew before. Now let's move on to how we'll put people to work. How are you going to give people health care? How are you going to create jobs in America?"

While Menendez did not directly address the media's focus on the Wright controversy, his message to the fourth estate was much the same. Asked after the conference whether he thought the race between Clinton and Barack Obama had devolved into a distraction of sideshow issues and political scandals, the New Jersey Senator agreed.

"In fairness, both candidates have talked about the issues, whether it be heath care or the economy and Iraq," he said. "I think it is largely driven by the media. I think the media is largely driven by the idea that the essence of a good story is conflict."