When conservative media critics bemoan the freak show, it means you’re winning:
I started pondering this when we all got swept up in the spectacle of Hilary Rosen denigrating Ann Romney for not working… That, in turn, followed our collective enthrallment over Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom describing their Etch a Sketch operation, which in turn followed the uproar over Rush Limbaugh calling a law student a slut, which followed…well, it’s hard to remember at this point.
Each of these episodes, considered separately, contains elements of substance that were soon overwhelmed by the rhetoric emanating from the media echo chamber. Collectively, they suggest that what should be a serious campaign in hard economic times has turned into a spectacle in which we are amusing ourselves to death.
For too long, liberals thought it was enough to win on the facts and the real issues, or worse, to win the Dionne/Brooks wankfests. But in the back of our minds (at least mine), it was “oh noes, what if Drudge floats something mean about Democrats”. Now, I wish a motherfucker would make this Etch-A-Sketch versus “teleprompter”, Hilary Rosen versus Rush Limbaugh. Bring on the amusement. We’ll win there too.
Litlebritdifrnt
We win because we are right, and the majority of people in the US agree with us. Now getting those folks out to vote is another thing.
Baud
How can you look at the way the Republicans have governed since 2010 (if not earlier) and contemplate the notion that we were going to have a serious campaign.
Where do you think the phrase “the only adult in the room” came from?
MikeJ
You’ll still wind up with at least a dozen people here complaining that when Democrats try to win it’s unseemly and we should never, ever say anything that would make Charlie Rose lift an eyebrow.
ploeg
Every time they bring up Hilary Rosen, we get to bring up Ann “Two Cadillacs” Romney. They will soon regret that they ever brought up Rosen (if they don’t already).
arguingwithsignposts
Of all the “media critics” out there, I hold a special place of spite for Howard Kurtz, because he makes out to be some kind of centrist outsider, when he’s about as village as they come.
rda909
Kurtzie says the Hilary Rosen (you know, that working mom who has no connection to Barack Obama) kerfuffle “contained an element of substance.” WHAT?!?! On the other hand, a major presidential candidate’s spokesperson admits his candidate is just bullshitting you at all times, now that’s noteworthy. Oh Howie and his false equivalencies.
Steve
Roy Edroso has a great column about how the wingers think the “Obama ate a dog” story is the perfect antidote to the meme about Romney putting the dog on the roof of the car. This is what campaigning has become; might as well revel in it.
tofubo
that was now, this is then
republicansimitis, they keep building them…
Roger Moore
@Litlebritdifrnt:
More to the point, we win because it’s so obvious that we’re right on the issues that even the attempts at distraction and misdirection can’t obscure it anymore. It used to be that the Republicans only had to deploy the full RWNM to hide their missteps once in a while, and that gave people long enough to forget about the last incident that they could see each one as an isolated thing. Now they’re messing up so often they haven’t even finished trying to cover up one mistake by the time the next one comes out, and the pattern gets hard to miss. Worst of all, to people who have noticed it, the RWNM winds up highlighting Republican mistakes rather than concealing them.
rb
You will get your wish. This trivial bullshit is all they’ve got this time around. Weak as it is, it’s their best play.
PeakVT
Wasn’t Kurtz one of the biggest purveyors of trivial non-stories 5-8 years back? I should be happy I can’t remember, I suppose.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
What’s great about these is that we get to win on the facts and the show. Not only did Rush dig himself a hole by calling the law student a slut, he kept digging and throwing the dirt back into the hole.
Now all we have to do is deal with the 43% of people who won’t vote for Obama no matter what.
tofubo
@tofubo:
republicanismitis
typo, and all that
Baud
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
They are irrelevant to Obama. The problem is winning back the House and keeping the Senate.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Steve: He doesn’t really seem to go into why Democrats haven’t bothered with the joke.
My theories:
1. Lots of Americans know that other countries eat things that we wouldn’t, like dog.
2. A kid doesn’t really have much choice in what he gets to eat.
3. That still doesn’t take away that what Romney did to his dog was bad.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Baud: True, and I meant to imply the Democratic party.
Randy P
@Steve: And Jim Treacher (whoever that is), mentioned in the article, proves his point. Every other comment on that article was Treacher trying to get some traction on the dog idiocy, HUNDREDS OF TIMES IN THE SAME FREAKING COMMENTS area. Somehow that made me really sad. I think I’m looking at an actual example of the “blogging in PJs in the parents’ basement” that we all like to joke about.
Steve
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I dunno, Obama was apparently so embarrassed by this story that he wrote about it in his autobiography.
gaz
This is fairly encouraging. I’ve long lamented the trivializing of our 4th estate by the very people that are in charge of it. If I had to point to any one thing that really sets us back as a nation (at least recently, past few decades or so), I think it’s this. Taken in the long view, polluting the well and creating sensation where there is supposed to be actual reporting means our very zeitgeist gets corrupted. We end up not only falsifying answers, but we stop being able to even ask the proper questions
It’s scary. It’s amazing how pervasive it is as well.
I’m encouraged whenever I see some MSM navel gazing like this. It’s needed (although not the only thing). I felt that people were too hard on the NYT on the infamous “Truth Vigilante” piece. Somebody – somewhere had to ask the question. Now I’m afraid with the backlash again, we’ll see less of that from them. Maybe I’m wrong. And yeah – it was easy to be pissed that they had the audacity to ask what their very function was. After I thought about, I was thinking the appropriate response would be an emphatic – “Be Truth Vigilantes!, and MOAR like this please, also too”. You know?
Anyway… meh. I wonder how much play this particular piece will get. I hope it graces a lot of eyeballs. I hope this kind of thing winds up on cable television “news”.
Redshift
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’d say that it’s because it’s just another “Obama is a weird un-American cipher” attack, and whether or not the NYT Ombudsman plays along, after Obama has been president for three and a half years, no one but people who already hate Obama are going to be convinced by “who is this guy, really?”
Romney is a first-time all-but-nominee, so no matter how well political junkies know him, everything is fresh and new.
gaz
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I’ve got a vote or get a wedgie policy in my household.
Turnout, it’s what’s for dinner =)
Heliopause
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
kay
@gaz:
I love newspapers. I buy three. I think the country would completely collapse into an orgy of white collar crime and rip off schemes w/ out local newspapers.
But they have to look at their work.
There’s a Kaiser poll out today where 40% of those polled either believe the health care law has been overturned or don’t know what’s going on with it.
That is a basic and profound failure.
If the Ryan plan they’re selling ever passes Congress, btw 15 and 17 million people will lose Medicaid.
Why isn’t that the headline? That’s what’s going to matter to people. Medicaid is disabled people, poor old people and kids.
They have a responsibility to put that in the first paragraph, instead of this impenatrable bullshit about block grants and states’ rights. I don’t even think they understand it themselves.
Then we can have a debate.
schrodinger's cat
@kay:
If the Ryan plan they’re selling ever passes Congress, btw 15 and 17 million people will lose Medicaid.
Why isn’t that
They don’t because they think their purpose is to entertain not inform. Either that or most of them are careerist stooges who know on which side their bread is buttered
kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s weird, because I feel as if there’s a hole in the middle.
There’s the Fox crowd, and they’re getting their fix, and then WAY on the other end you can spend 6 months reading Ezra Klein and 5000 wotd NYTimes pieces and Kaiser and congressional reports looking for “how many people potentially affected?” And then there’s this vast, arid wasteland in the middle.
It’s GREAT on the high end. Spend enough time and you can learn anything you care to about the Ryan plan, but what if you don’t have 40 hours to spare?
Baud
@kay: Haven’t most polls indicated that the Ryan plan is unpopular? People are getting the right information from somewhere.
gaz
also too, Jim Treacher shits his diapers.
Questions? http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/dog_soldiers_ri.php?page=2
comment thread.
don’t worry about it though. just pass it along
The precise meme is “Jim Treacher shits his diapers.”
4tehlulz
Who is the real Howard Kurtz?
gaz
@4tehlulz: lol
gaz
@kay:
Which is why I’m encouraged when they print something even remotely self aware.
And essentially, I very much agree with what you said, and would like to subscribe to your… oh wait =)
gaz
@kay:
You almost sounded like Bobo for a minute. * shivers *
j/k =)
gaz
@gaz: Meme update.
Jim Treacher Fucks Dogs
russell
Jim Webb made a point of referring to George Allen, repeatedly, as “George Felix Allen”, and won with a 0.5% margin.
Cheap shot? Sure as hell was. Oh well. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
If conservatives want to make a great big point out of dogs, by all means let’s go there.
gaz
(Jim Treacher)
I have no reason to believe Obama was lying when he admitted he eats dogs. Nice try, wingnut. :)
__________________________________________________
(me)
And I have no reason to believe you were lying when you said you wrote about how you like to fuck dogs in your autobiography. I’m not surprised that it hasn’t been published btw, considering the author, but hey – you flat out admitted it on the thread, so there’s that.
Oh, and “wingnut” is a right-winger. The proper slur for a left-winger is “moonbat”
If you weren’t snatching all of your clever insults from all of those evil “liebrul” blogs you wouldn’t have made that mistake. Either go visit redstate/stormfront (same thing), or come up with your own material, FFS. You can’t even steal properly.
______________________________________________________
Please make him own the dog fucking thing. Do your part people =)
now, I promise no more treacher from me in the thread – but at least it’s on topic, sort of =)
Bruce S
Kurtz failed to credit Neil Postman, in stealing his line. “Amusing ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”- written a mere 27 years ago.
“Bring on the amusement. We’ll win there too.” Nobody who actually gives a shit about anything “wins” there. It’s the core of what’s fucked about this country’s media and politics.
Angry Egilsson
A constant patter of inane, trivial, offensive junk is how GHWB beat Dukakis in 1988. Throw in “moral” issues and it was a beatdown. Stay aggressive and keep changing the attack angles.
samara morgan
in a way, its misdirection, sleight of hand. the GOP desperately wants to talk about ANYTHING but bishop willards mormonism.
because the more the conversation is about mormons, the more votes Romney loses.
AxelFoley
@Heliopause:
Your concern is duly noted.