At a recent conference on the Clinton Administration at Hofstra University, ex-press secretary Jake Siewart made a point that had previously eluded me: It was during the early days of Clinton's presidency that the democratization of instant information made the insider press corps obsolete. To retain their importance and self-regard, these journalists had to invent a new function for themselves, and they did: interpreting, not reporting, the news. But instead of doing the hard work of researching the historical, economic, sociological and political contexts of a given story and then finding a way to explain these in lay terms, they preferred to rely on what came most easily to them: cocktail party gossip, green room small talk, semiofficial leaks and unconfirmed rumor, almost always offered up as if the source had no interest in pushing a point of view.
It soon became clear that the insider press corps had developed a set of values almost completely antithetical to those of the majority of the American people. This disjunction is frequently misinterpreted--often deliberately--as one of snooty liberal elitists versus God-fearing, Darwin-disbelieving, upright common folk. It's almost impossible to find reliable evidence for this characterization, either in what the press corps believes or what the public does. Ironically, the media elite are attacking themselves when they embrace this myth, which is purposely stoked by the far right, as I've demonstrated ad nauseam.
A true dichotomy between the public and the elite media can be found, on the other hand, on the subject of presidential lying. Excluding George Washington and perhaps Jimmy Carter, just about all Presidents have found it necessary to lie to the American people. And with those two exceptions, and possibly a few others, many have also found it necessary--or at least desirable--to fool around with women other than their wives. For reasons of culture and history, the mainstream media decided that both of these longstanding traditions had to end with Bill Clinton.
As a dyed-in-the-wool independent (small "i" because I am not a member of any political party, not even the Independent Party), I just have to say that this is one of the most jaw-dropping, unbelievable things about the last gazillion years that Bush as been in the White House.
Of course, unlike some Democrats I know and love dearly, I knew that Clinton was lying about Monica long before the blue dress became THE news item of the year, in '98.
(Hey, wasn't that the same year that Osama declared war on us and blew up a couple of our embassies? But, who knew? The MSM was too obsessed with Bill Clinton's sex life to care.)
I could not have proved it in a court of law, but I knew. Why? Because Clinton had a life pattern of such misbehavior.
But I just really did not care enough about it to try to turn it into a constitutional crisis, even if I could have.
Yes, perjury is a serious offense. But it happens every day in family courts all over the country. It is rarely, if ever, prosecuted. People are expected to lie about such things as adultery, or so I was told by a friend of mine, who is a divorce attorney.
In my mind, though I found the whole episode repugnant, Clinton did not tell the truth about something, about which he should have never been asked in the first place. Clinton did not run for president as the epitome of marital fidelity, nor did he ever claim to be our nation's moral compass. If we have to look to Washington D.C. for moral guidance, we are all in very big trouble.
But deceiving or attempting to deceive the population of a Democracy into a war of aggression (the mother of all war crimes), is unforgivable and is, at the very least, an impeachable offense.
Now we find out, though some of us have long suspected it, that any any and all of our phone calls and e-mails may have been read by the Bush government, but without so much as a by-your-leave, from the FISA court or Congress, which we did not suspect.
This too, is an impeachable offense.
But does the mainstream corporate media give a damn about these lies, much more catastrophic in their effects? Does it not dawn on them that the lies of the Bush administration have had horrendous consequences for our country, not to mention the innocent Iraqi people whose country has been tuned into a killing field by Bush and his lies.
Yes, it does matter, and the American people do care that we were lied to; sold a bill of goods about the war in Iraq and a number of other issues, both foreign and domestic.
How dare some bean-brain, stuck in Belt-way Never-never land, tell us what we do and do not care about!
David Broder needs to shut the hell up about what we think, because he obviously doesn't know Jack about the subject.
Just don't get me started about news commentators who pontificate about what the American people think.
They don't have a clue and apparently don't want one, because the recent polls are fairly screaming it at them, but they choose not to hear.
Pity the poor fools who turn to these morons for information, which any citizen of a Democracy needs in order to be a good citizen, able to make informed choices about their political duties, like voting, providing that still matters.
What we need in this country, right now, is some good old authenticity; some truth-telling, the kind that hurts like an abscessed tooth, but must be told if we are to even survive, let alone be free.
Then, without hesitation, that tooth needs to be extracted, as it is poisoning the entire system!
No comments:
Post a Comment