Of Media Orgies and Obama's Payment for Others' Sins
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Mike Allen, the Politico's chief political writer, has filed a story, of sorts, that could have begun, "Please forgive us, for we know all too well what we do."
It's something of a journalistic mea culpa, a self-examination of his own publication's flagrante delicto embarrassment. It is, that is, almost Spitzerian in its almost apology for having indulged in the latest media orgy -- yeah, that one -- at a politico's expense.
Further, it can be boiled down to four, red-faced little words: We can be bullied.
The "news" at the root of Mr. Allen's embarrassment is the non-story he variously describes as an "old, oft-written" tale of guilt by association; a bit of dead buzz that "has been written about countless times"; a piece of journalistic driftwood that "opponents of Obama have constantly pushed reporters to write about" with unthinking abandon; a reverberating "fracas" within the "Eastern media echo chamber."
But hey, suddenly there was video, and though that video seasoned the actual meat of the story not one iota, "political reporters and editors were inundated with e-mails from red-state friends and relatives" to write about it -- again -- as though the morsel was something fresh, which is what political reporters are supposed to report and editors edit.
"Many news outlets -- including Politico," writes Mr. Allen, "did not initially pile on with rehashes" about the unremittingly rehashed story because to do so would be ... now here's some news ... a rehash.
But lordy lord especially the right-wing noise machine geared up with splendidly enthusiastic rehashed-ness, and in no time flat blithering idiots like Bill O'Reilly were splashing said video all over the tube.
The right, need I remind you, mostly relies on visual amusement since reading might upset its assorted philosophical states of denial. So perhaps to this woefully unread segment of our declining society -- one that happens to be in the otherwise newsworthy grips of two failing wars and a collapsing economy -- the story was, in fact, news.
It wasn't, of course, but naturally it was, because bottomfeeding firms like O'Reilly & Hannity Unlimited were bound to say it was. And left unaccompanied, they could very well finish the happy race to the bottom in sole possession of the media prize money.
Which is to say, one should not pick on only Fox for its magnificent obsession with the story. Because, let's face it, most newsy adult education in this country is a visual medium as well. So other 24-hour cable networks competitively "piled on" with the worst of them, and before long, even responsible print publications were forced to pile on, too. It's a market thing.
And all along, piling up on Mr. Allen's desk, as mentioned, were all those "emails from red-state friends and relatives." Also mentioned but downplayed by Allen were those conspiring mounds of screaming "gotcha" missives from other self-serving opponents of Obama -- those who once emotionally unraveled in "progressive" hysteria over the Illinois senator's objective notation of Ronald Reagan's historic trajectory.
My, my, how times, attitudes and tactical friends do change. At any rate, the external piling on came with crushing and inescapable force.
Allen's defense, in so many words: We can take only so much. We can be pushed. We can be bullied. But please forgive us, as we forgive those who hustled this intemperate crapola on us.
We shall, I trust and pray.
And besides, there are so many devils in this story it's hard to know for whom one should have the most sympathy -- the millions of Bill O'Reillys of this nation, who sadly suffer from arrested development; the millions of "other" opponents, who see their candidate plunging into the dark and desperate abyss; the unaligned and commonly inattentive millions, who just assume that news is whatever they're told is news; the press and electronic media, who are often battered by unmanageable market forces.
But back to reality -- at least for now, until yet another media orgy commences.
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fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.comTHE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
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