Friday, September 16, 2011

Well, hell. Based on this criteria Gunwalker will NEVER become an official scandal.


Swami Brendan Nyhan.

Remember in May when I commented on Brendan Nyhan's prediction that there would be a major scandal in Obama's future?

Well, we missed out, by Nyhan's official scandal litmue test. How, you ask?

Go here: Obama Is 20 Days Away from Beating Bush's Scandal-Free Record.

The criteria for what amounts to a scandal according to Nyhan is whether a news story on the front page of The Washington Post uses that word "scandal" in the reporter's own voice to describe the president or his administration. His study cites a other political scientists who have argued that what the Post publishes is a good measure of elite opinion, and thus, he would argue, can pinpoint the moment when a brewing controversy solidifies into a bona fide scandal. As Nyhan wrote in his study: "This restriction helps identify the most salient controversies at the point at which they become highly prominent and generate widespread coverage."


Well, hell. Based on this criteria Gunwalker will NEVER become an official scandal.

2 comments:

TPaine said...

There WAS a major scandal in D.C. in January of 2008 - Obama was sworn in (?) as dictator of the USSA. It's been all downhill from there.

rdf67 said...

GunWalker is a scandal, but the WAPO will not recognize it because they are dedicated to protecting the Great Pretender.