Media memes matter

The narrative that news media fix upon makes a difference in their reporting.

When George Allen was "Macaca'd," one of the reasons it worked is that it played media's narrative that he was a "racist." (There had already been tons of stories about how Allen had a Rebel flag and a noose in his office, etc.) This incident, caught on tape, seemed to confirm a stereotype that the media was pushing. The point is that, like it or not, narratives matter. Quite often, these memes are false, by the way. For example, the media played Howard Dean's internet campaign, but did you know that his website had about one-tenth as many hits as Bush's? (You wouldn't know that by reading the papers).

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What I am saying is that the media is currently creating a narrative that says McCain is losing support. And in order to fit this template, they will highlight stories which confirm it (and they will ignore news items which would undermine their premise)...[ellipsis in original]