Did Adoring Christie Coverage Invite NJ Corruption? | Blog | Media Matters for AmericaTrying to expl...

1. Eric Boehlert: Did Adoring Christie Coverage Invite NJ
Corruption?
Did Adoring Christie Coverage Invite NJ Corruption? | Blog | Media Matters for America
Trying to explain New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's unraveling political career as allegations mount
about the bullying ways of his office, the New York Daily News' Mike Lupica, in his latest column,
quoted a local operative who diagnosed Christie's sudden implosion this way: Hubris.
Christie's January-to-forget at first featured the startling revelation that his senior aides and
appointees were click through the next webpage in on a plan to seek political retribution by
wreaking havoc on the city of Fort Lee, in the form of a massive, four-day traffic jam concocted
under the phony guise of a traffic study.
New revelations in the days since suggest that the scandals reflect a culture of bullying and
retribution that's become pervasive inside the governor's office. Over the weekend, the Democratic
mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, alleged that two senior members of Christie's administration
threatened to hold Hurricane Sandy relief money hostage from the city until the mayor approved a
redevelopment plan favored by the governor. Christie's office denies the charge; an editorial in the
state's largest newspaper, which endorsed Christie three months ago, calls the extortion allegation
"believable."
Zimmer hasn't been alone in alleging payback. According to Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, after he
failed to endorse Christie's re-election last year a series of meetings he had scheduled with
previously supportive Christie officials were abruptly canceled and never rescheduled. And
Elizabeth, NJ's longtime mayor, Christian Bollwage, claims that after he opposed parts of Christie's
legislative agenda in 2010, the state retaliated with collective punishment for Elizabeth locals by
closing the city's only Department of Motor Vehicles department.
In the wake of the mounting revelations, the Daily News' Lupica quotes a political insider who
described described Christie's mounting woes this way: "Christie has been on a continual roll and he
thinks he's invincible. And once you think you are invincible, you've got a problem."
Question: Who was instrumental in convincing Chris Christie's political team that the governor was
invincible? The Beltway media.
And so who might deserve some of the blame for the bullying abuse of power sponsored by Christie?
The Beltway media.
It's certainly possible Christie and his staff would have behaved just as arrogantly and boorishly
without the adoring press clips during his first term. But it's also easy to imagine how the indulgent
Christie press might have created a sense of invincibility within the governor's inner circle. You can
see how Christie's crew may have interpreted that lavish media praise for the governor's bullying
personality (he's a Straight Shooter!) as a green light for increasingly outlandish behavior, such as
deliberately choking off traffic on the nations' busiest bridge and thinking they could get away with
it.

2. Has the local New York/New Jersey press tried to hold Christie accountable while piercing his
Reformer facade? Some journalists certainly have. And we saw more of that just prior to the bridge
and Hoboken scandals breaking this year, as disturbing allegations of wrongdoing by Christie
continued to mount.
But in a state without its own major media market, it's always been the national press coverage that
defined Christie as a political rising star, and that showered him with almost endless praise and
admiration. And it was the national media that showed little interest in asking tough questions about
Christie or even mildly addressing his abusive tactics.
Eagerly accepting the task of branding Christie as a "different" kind of "tough-talking" politician, the
Beltway press polished his image, presenting his bullying as a feature, not a bug.
Time cheered, "He's big, he's brash, and he's not afraid of picking fights with Republicans or making
allies of Democrats. Can Chris Christie bring his wayward party back to the center?" Newsweek
published a cover story headlined, "What Obama Can Learn From Chris Christie," The Washington
Post recently asked, "Is Chris Christie The Republican's Bill Clinton?" and just three weeks ago The
Atlantic crowned Christie the best 2016 candidate of 2013 (the then-nascent bridge scandal was the
"one dark cloud hanging over Christie's 2013" but "seems likely to dissipate," according to that
piece).
Does any of that sound like Washington journalists were even slightly tuned into what we now know
was unfolding in New Jersey under Christie? Does that sound like Beltway journalists, eager to
market Christie's personality, were asking any critical questions about the abusive ways things were
getting done in New Jersey?
Again, the press loved the bullying ways. They didn't just excuse it or downplay it, they celebrated it.
So wouldn't Christie's office and his appointees simply view that as permission to go bully more
people?
By the way, can you imagine the media's reaction if, as U.S. Senator, Barack Obama had angrily
wagged his finger in the face of Illinois voters during town hall meetings, or if he had flown in a $12
million, state-owned helicopter to attend one of his daughter's baseball games? Christie did those
things and the D.C. press never flinched as journalists built him up as an "authentic" leader.
Recounting his run-in with Christie and his abusive ways, Elizabeth mayor Bollwage stressed that
years ago when he says his community suffered retribution, and when Christie was promoted as a
political rock star, nobody believed the allegation about the governor. "We were saying this back in
2010 and 2011," the mayor told New Jersey's Star-Ledger last week. "However, everyone was so in
love the Christie back then, it fell on deaf ears."
Would the scandals now threatening Christie's career look different if earlier New Jersey complaints
about corruption and abuse of power hadn't fallen on so many deaf ears? If the Beltway media hadn't
been so committed to marketing the star governor?