Chicago Ain't Cheap
I really don't care about this alleged Rezko scandal. Be funny if that's what took down Obama.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:39 AM
Pajama Guy
"You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [at ‘60 Minutes’] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”
-Jonathan Klein, former CBS Executive
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5 Comments:
Whether it's serious or not, he's not responding well. He was snippy with the press. Are they starting to turn on him?
I don't think it's really a question of "turning on him", because I don't think that the press has really put him on a pedestal. At least, not in the way that Hillary and SNL have suggested.
My theory is that when the press treats someone with "kid gloves", it usually isn't because all the individual reporters (and their writers and their bosses) actually revere him or her. Unlike LAGuy, I don't know any actual people in the media, but I strongly suspect that if you met a reporter at a party and asked him "Will you and your colleagues ever try to find dirt on Obama?" they will say, "Of course; that will happen sooner or later."
Fine, but why not now?
I think it's because the press loves story templates that they can re-use to produce easy-to-write stories. The stories are almost pre-written: politicians in sex scandals, athletes on drugs, billionaires who altruistically give money to help the Third World, starlettes who mess up their lives, or whatever. If, say, Ellen Page gets arrested for DUI, she will immediately be put into the Britney Template. Any reporter can write that story in two minutes. To find out what makes Ellen Page's DUI unique would take actual work.
In politics, one of the templates is "Idealistic Reformer Against the Political Establishment". They used that story for McCain, and also for Obama. But that doesn't really mean they love either of them. They're just lazy and it's an easy way to tell a story. And it spoils the story if Hillary is 70% "establishment" and Obama is only 15% "establishment". Battle lines are confusing to the viewer if they aren't clearly drawn.
So if the plot of this story almost fits, they'll stretch it. But eventually, if it fits worse and worse, an adventurous and hard-working reporter will decide to use a different template for a change. (Or, in incredibly rare cases, no template at all -- but then the other media won't repeat the story, since that would take work.)
If my theory is right, then the candidates had better watch out. Because the press has other templates.... "Out of Touch Elderly Senior Statesman" and "Angry Black Man In A Racist America" come to mind. So you-know-who and you-know-who had best avoid anything that would suggest these themes to an intrepid reporter....
I wonder if someone could make a list of all the political reporting templates.
Peter Steinfels (New York Times religion reporter and Commonweal editor) wrote in 1993 that there are exactly six stories about religion that can be found in the secular press:
• Religious leader reveals feet of clay (or turns out to be a scoundrel).
• Ancient faith struggles to adjust to modern times.
• Scholars challenge long-standing beliefs.
• Interfaith harmony overcomes inherited enmity.
• New translation of Scripture sounds funny.
• Devoted members of a zealous religious group turn out to be warm, ordinary folks.
There are more than six political stories, since the press cares more about politics than religion. But I suspect there aren't more than two dozen or so. And "President still wearing halo after two years in office" is not one of them. The Obama worshippers are going to be greatly disappointed.
Unless he never becomes president. Then they can continue to Believe for their whole lives.
Definitely the best thing that can happen to someone is to not be elected. Then you would have done everything right, just like Al Gore would have, or Bobby Kennedy (not that it's worth being assassinated). It also would have been great not to invade Iraq, because then everything would be going really well there right now, with Saddam completely contained and the Middle East stabilized.
You're missing at least one typical religion story- the media discovers a "great awakening" or "new spirituality" every 2-4 (check out Newsweek/Time/US News around Easter) and cherry pick statistics (despite church attendance generally declining over the last century, it went up 1.8% over the last 14 months!).
To see how Obama will/would perform and be treated as president, see Governor Deval Patrick's first two years in office ("Newcomer/outsider makes political missteps" "Administration discovers New Politics is for elections, Old Politics is for governing" "Supporters wonder where all the promise of change went" "Veteran political insider brought in to shake up staff"-not all necessarily bad as they might sound (you also get a lot of headlines about old-timers retiring), there is a pattern evolving)
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