There is a long fascinating look at the disease currently infecting the traditional media, by Glenn Greenwald on Salon this morning.
Article.
That's the only job of the modern "journalist" as they see it: to repeat whatever trash is whispered in their ears by political operatives. If right-wing strategists or opposition campaigns are chattering about some lowly attack, they have no choice but to repeat it -- and not just repeat it, but repeat it endlessly, have it dominate their political "reporting." After all, as Gibson says: "That's an issue that's being much debated now." Of course, the only reason those sideshows are "being much debated now" is because Gibson and his friends never stop talking about them, but that's the endless self-referential loop that fuels their destruction of our political culture.
It is this degraded media dynamic which the GOP is counting on to elect John McCain. The establishment media is more than geared up to play its role in amplifying those petty smears; by and large, it's all they do. And the central, and still unknowable, variable is whether the citizenry -- driven by the belief that our country is fundamentally off-track and that the GOP is responsible -- will be able to rise above the two-headed Right-wing/media monster and thereby refuse to elect as President a candidate who will continue policies that the vast majority of them hate.
I thought I would give the television another chance this morning, with the whole hour on Meet the Press being a chance to see Obama up close and personal. I only made it for five minutes.
I can't watch anymore, I am going out to sit by the lake for a while. Tim Russert has been completely consumed by the disease, spending the first whole segment of the one-hour chance for America to study Barack Obama's plans for the future by talking about the only thing we have heard for an entire week. The sideshow that has become the media's obsession with Jeremiah Wright. Tragic day for journalism.
Thaks to Glen Greenwald at Salon for proving that there are a few sane souls left out there. I'm going outside now. I need some sky.