Obama and Clinton held a debate (
video or
transcript) a few days ago, and there's been more or less universal condemnation of the frivolous, gossipy nature of the questions ever since. I've read dozens of bloggers and media critics who were disgusted by it, but I'm only going to link to a couple. Glennzilla did his usual sober, calm, and
devastating deconstruction of the media follies, and then today for laughs, there's this ahistorical parody
on Obsidian Wings, depicting the 1858 Lincoln vs. Douglas debate as moderated by Gibson and Stephanopoulos.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you love America this much (extending fingers), this much (extending hands slightly), or thiiiiiis much (extending hands broadly)?
LINCOLN: I think we covered this…
GIBSON: If I may interrupt…
LINCOLN: Please.
GIBSON: I noticed, Mr. Lincoln, that your American flag pin was upside down…
LINCOLN: Yes, the wind caught it. Now, as I was saying...
GIBSON: We get questions about this all the time over at Powerline and on Hannity’s talk show. Mr. Douglas has said this is a major vulnerability for you in the fall. So I’ll ask again – do you love America?
LINCOLN: (scowling with a forced smile). Yes.
GIBSON: If your love for America were ice cream, what flavor would it be?
I don't usually read comments on blog posts, but some of the readers got nicely into the spirit of things and added value of teh funny kind:
Are you bitter about American politics this much (extending fingers), this much (extending hands slightly), or thiiiiiis much (extending hands broadly)?
If your bitterness about American politics were a leafy green vegetable, which one would it be? Brussel sprouts? Spinach?
I like to think of my love for america as a giant beaver, gnawing on the tree of liberty to damn up the river of freedom.
My bitterness would be a fruit: to wit, Chinese bitter melon, which is nearly bitter enough to make you contemplate suicide when you eat it.
I haven't watched TV in many months, but one of the TVs at the gym is usually on CNN when I'm doing the elliptical machine at night, and from what I see, the
constant criticism of the pettiness and self-inflicted irrelevance of the mainstream news seems to be entirely accurate. I didn't see any post debate coverage, but last week all they showed non-stop was pontificating about the preacher at Obama's church who made some controversial remarks several years ago. A couple of weeks before that every single minute of CNN for a solid week was about hookers. The one the NY Governor allegedly hired in particular, what hookers are like in general, interviews with self-proclaimed pimps, etc. Some weeks before that Larry King and their regular news coverage was all about a UFO that apparently buzz bombed some hick town in Texas.
The real news channels have been watering down their coverage for years, and now they're hemorrhaging viewers while Colbert and John Stewart swell in ratings, so they think a further retreat from actual news is the solution. Hence we get endless inconsequential stories about celebrity-style foolishness. Gotcha comments, personality based bullshit, and reporting that grows ever shallower with each news cycle. This puddle-deep reporting is exactly the sort of media coverage that gave us 2 terms of George Bush -- if the candidates are never forced to answer real questions or show real solutions, but can skim through with smiles and glad handling and a few sound bites, you get an idiot who looks good on camera but has no real ability to govern.
Now we've got McCain skimming through unencumbered by media scrutiny; if anything he's even more beloved of the media than Dubya was. McCain is clearly a more capable man than the current president, and McCain is occasionally (though largely symbolically) willing to go against the default grain of his party on social issues, but he's "four more years" in every way when it comes to foreign policy. Naturally, the media coverage of this is nonexistent. Why shouldn't it be? After all, Clinton almost teared up at one point, and Obama doesn't bowl very well, so clearly those stories must lead the evening news for the foreseeable future.
Labels: politics, the media
