Politicians and the Media: It ain't a Love Fest

What’s with politicians and the media?

Palin says all press is evil. Obama thinks Fox is destroying the free world. You’ve got to love it, don’t you? I mean, in essence, the press delivers news to us. Ok, sometimes there’s spin and dodging and weaving and the line between news and opinion is so blurred you can’t tell it’s a line. But the media, in all its 24-hour news cycle forms, is, at least , a necessary evil, especially for politicians.

After all, suppose they gave a press conference and nobody came?

That’d be kind of cool, and would, of course, point out the obvious hypocrisy of any politician’s stand on the issue. They need the media. What they don’t like is people asking tough questions, like those killer Katie Couric questions about Palin’s reading habits. . . let’s review, shall we?

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

Oh I know, it’s not fair to pick on her. And in a fair fight she’d probably drop me like a moose on opening day, or at least have her husband Todd try. But don’t you think she could have come up with an answer? You could have, and you weren’t running on a presidential ticket. 

Obama said, "Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition -- it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

Fox is destroying the world? Oh my.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton went even further. "If you're on the left, if you're somebody like [MSNBC's] Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or one of the folks who helps to keep our government honest, and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values, then [the president] thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service."

Keith Olbermann “keeps the government honest?” Hardly. He’s consumed so much Kool Aid he’s turning green. And why should the press “make sure that folks are true to progressive values?” I guess that’s important if you’re a progressive. I’m not.

As I’ve said before, these aren’t news people, they’re commentators. And politicians embrace those commentators who agree with their point of view. Of course. Always have and always will.

We need an active media that looks at and covers issues from all angles. We need commentators who express their points of view. We need both sides. You don’t like what someone is saying, turn the channel, read another paper, find another site.

Gather the information from everywhere and make up your own mind. Palin’s disdain for the media will eventually cost her. But that is her right, and really, the press probably overuses the old “right to know” argument. The struggle for some comes as they become celebrities, and Palin certainly is that. By the same token, bitch all you want about Couric’s interview with her (the end result being that we saw that Palin knew little about anything), but I’ll bet she could answer that “what do you read” question now anyway. Whether her defensive prickliness will carry her forward we'll see. Personally, I find it one-dimensional and tiresome.

Politicians, whether they like it or not, need at least a working relationship with the press. It’s a mutual need. And, frankly, I want to know what these people are saying, even in that modern, 24-hour news cycle 30-second sound bite world in which we live. So suck it up, nobody forced you into the public spotlight.

After all, what if they held a press conference and nobody came? I still think that would be kind of cool.

Politics . . . as usual

So the Great Leader called all his chiefs to his house and they met. And talked about the future and how they should rule this great land. And, as usual, nothing got done.

We're getting a bit far away to blame Bush for all the evils of the world, but in this age of "it's not my problem," New Orleans still doesn't have the equipment on site in the event of another major hurricane, there's no more emergency equipment in the Gulf then there was before the Deepwater Horizon blew up, people seem to get poisoned from hamburgers, eggs and greens more than ever before and our freakin' government spends money faster than frisky frat boys at a Nevada cat house. What the heck are they doing in Washington?

Democrats took a beating, but don't hold your breath for the Republicans or Tea Partiers who replaced them to do much better. After all, Republicans held office for years and managed only to bloat the budget, grow government, pass pet projects, undermine minimal oversight and pretty much piss everyone off. Only in the movies, though, does the bully eventually get his ass kicked by some good guy who rides off into the proverbial "life is wonderful now" sunset with the babe.

Eh . . . it's politics, after all, that Washington-based sport where none of the participants seem to understand anything except the desperation they feel when re-election is near. They can't make any real tough decisions because then they won't get re-elected. They can't say anything but the standard 3-second sound bite mush because then they won't get re-elected. They can't really try and change the way things are done because then they won't get picked for any important committees . . . and then won't get re-elected.

Come on, these people get headlines when they tell the press they aren’t going to fly in military jets any more? They shouldn’t have been flying in them in the first place. Get on a damn commercial flight you people. Pay for your own healthcare, freeze your pay, do your own taxes, anything else that might give you a sense of how people are really living. Trust me, if we voters had a chance to lay off a bunch of you we’d do it in a heartbeat. And if any private big business person performed as badly as you have you’d be calling for his head. So you shouldn’t be shocked people are calling for yours.

Clearly the system is broken. . . ok, completely dysfunctional . . . and it has nothing to do with Fox News or MSNBC or anything other than the flaccid impotence of our politicians, who can't even agree on what to disagree. They need a reality check and maybe the elections shook up the status quo a bit. Now I’m a cynic, so I’m not holding my breath, and we may be looking at the modern version of the fall of the Roman Empire.

What’s clear is that half the cars in the convoy have gone off the cliff . . . now we’ll have to see if the others go off as well.