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USA Edition | Today Is Sunday, March 21, 2010 |
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USA Edition | Today Is Sunday, March 21, 2010 |
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| Failing The Honorable Profession | « Scan Content In The Order It Was Published » | PBS Delivers Convention Coverage Excellence | |
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Denver Hosts Democratic Convention At Pepsi Center
Denver — Since coming to town last weekend, the Democrats have claimed the national spotlight. For all the hoopla and rhetoric, little or no news will be made here this week. Neither presidential campaigns, nor political conventions, are intended to be expository of reality. Nor are they any longer necessary in today’s primary election candidate selection scheme. They are expensive advertising events paid for largely by those persons and corporations who seek favor from one or both political parties. They weren’t always this way, but television coverage of political conventions changed them as surely as it did what used to be sporting events. Both are now staged for entertainment and profit.
Democrat Nominees: Barack Obama and Joseph Biden
Some real news was made last Saturday when the Obama campaign named Sen. Joseph Biden to be the presumptive vice-presidential nominee. That was news, for Joe Biden brings experience and insight to a campaign being regularly pummeled by the Republicans for lack of nearly everything needed to be a successful president. Now, with Joe Biden on the ticket, the Obama people are sure to go after John McCain with renewed energy. When they do that may be genuine news — but even that remains uncertain in the age of mindless spin by all candidates and both parties.
So what about the convention? Are all the speeches, speculation, polling data and spin sessions bonafide news? Judging by the amount of press coverage, and the attention being given to both conventions by PBS, the cable news outlets, and the network news operations, it must be news. But it isn’t — it’s political theater crafted to reinforce polarization, obscure reality, pander to the ignorant, and prostitute the media. What’s happening here this week and next week in St. Paul is political advertising posing as a political event. Little that happens at either convention is real or expository.
Democrat Nominee, Barack Obama
The reality is that both presidential nominating conventions are advertising dressed up as news. The vast majority of those Americans who tune in or go online will not come away with anything that wasn’t intentionally scripted, staged, or controlled. Being on message counts — and no matter what is said, obfuscatory operatives, known in the trade as spinners, will be ready to cast anything to fit neatly into approved talking points.
No one is more responsible for supporting this system of obfuscatory pandering and flagrant dis-information than journalists who permit themselves and their media to be commandeered. Political spinners are to journalism just as spammers are to the Internet — unwanted distractions that waste time and resources by force.
No media is more easily distracted by spinners, spammers and damned liars than television — especially the cable news operations and even what’s left of the network news divisions. Consider last Sunday’s exchange between ABC News’ Chief Political correspondent George Stephanopoulous and Senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. This is not news, it’s unpaid advertising — just like both political conventions.
This Week With George Stephanopoulous
No matter the question posed to spinners, the answer is confined entirely to what’s favorable to the candidate. That’s advertising — pure and simple. There are legitimate questions to be asked of course, but they largely go unasked because so many of us willingly go along with the spin, spam — and damned lies.
