The Collective Stupidity of the U.S. Mainstream Media.
I don’t know how else to say it- it’s just one big ball of dumb.
Exhibit A: The New York Times.
Original link here.
Everyone has heard by now about the Times‘ flap over a tabloid-quality story that insinuated circumstantial evidence in such an arranged way as to imply that McCain had an affair almost a decade ago with a female lobbyist. According to the Times‘ politics editor, the main thrust of the story was about the suspect relationship McCain has with lobbyists and general.. but what the overwhelming majority of readers got out of the piece, curiously and obscurely titled, “For McCain, Self Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk”, was the romantic relationship ghosted in the article, cleverly concealed with trumped-up, US Weekly-style reporting.
Frankly, the story is bad reporting, a hit piece cleverly timed on the heels of the last set of primaries that definitively decided the outcome of the GOP race. The Times chose its candidate, and as predicted, has unleashed the dogs. Which is appropriate, given the quality of sources, structure, and clarity of the McCain piece.
The final verdict: when the fact that the Times reported the story is more widely known than the story itself, when other departments of the monolithic paper denounce the article… um, Mr. Keller, you screwed up.
Exhibit B: The Obama-in-Turban photos.
Photo credit: Associated Press
Yes, we know, we know, we know that Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein. But for the Clinton camp to elevate this photo of Obama, acting as a diplomat and donning the traditional dress of the Kenyan government (a common practice for politicians), to any kind of silent importance, is utterly xenophobic and absurd. Could you imagine what would happen if a picture of Hillary turned up in traditional Kenyan garb, plus turban?
Absolutely nothing. And that’s how it should be.
Shame on all the major news networks for even giving this piece airtime. It’s an unworthy scaremongering tactic completely devoid of importance.
Exhibit C: Bill Clinton Hits Black Obama Supporter at Rally
(hat tip: Mark Finklestein.) Oh, you haven’t heard about this? Catch the grainy vid here:
Absorb this video. Take it in. Ready?
Let me just point out the obvious, at the risk of appearing like a whiny conservative. Bill Clinton assaulted an Obama supporter at a rally. Clinton has a history over the past couple of months of blowing his top on the campaign trail. The guy is sexually frustrated. No big deal, right? Wrong.
The bare bones of the story are these: Clinton assaulted an Obama supporter. It doesn’t matter what the race of the Obama supporter happened to be. In good consciousness, I can conjecture that racism had nothing to do with this incident. However…
Picture, for a moment, the media explosion that would have occurred had the politician assaulting the Obama supporter been a Republican. The news clip would be running 24 hours, Al Sharpton would fly to Ohio, politicians everywhere would denounce the assaulter as a racist, and the assaulter would probably endure legal repercussions and have to apologize to the black community nationwide. The recoil would be political suicide.
Why? Because the national reflex is to call the Republican racist of the Republican acts badly towards a black citizen. An irritated fisticuff becomes a hate crime, sure evidence that foul race relations are still alive and well in Republican politics. The GOP’s chances to win the Presidential election would vanish.
But the Democrat, well, most assume that he is not inherently a racist; therefore race never enters into the argument at all (as it rightly should not).
Amazing how discrimination can appear (hypothetically, but anyone who follows mainstream trends in political/racial conflicts can corroborate… “macaca” anyone?) in so many forms, eh?
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