CSotD: Protecting the people’s right to remain ignorant
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Matt Wuerker on the inability of the media to focus on anything that matters.
The potential candidacy of NJ Governor Chris Christie has brought some new life to the increasingly odd Republican presidential campaign, but the only reason I know who he is, is that I happen to follow a cartoonist or two or three who do cartoons about New Jersey politics. And, even then, it's like being a fan of the South African cartoon, Madam & Eve, which I am: There are a lot of subtleties you miss when you aren't there to see the political issues that they're riffing on.
So now a lot of Republicans want Christie to get into the race, because half their field has self-destructed and the other half seems bent on doing so, or maybe seems unelectable, or maybe seems to be Mitt Romney. I'm not entirely clear on why the Republicans seem so unwilling to embrace Romney, but maybe that's why the Republicans are unwilling to embrace Romney: He doesn't piss off or scare enough people.
Anyway, they want Christie to run and he's doing a bit of a dance around the topic, which would make it seem like time to find out what this fellow is about: Is he pro-life or pro-choice? Is he for or against the war? Is he a fanatic or pragmatic on budget issues? What's his stance on gay marriage? How does he feel about Free Trade?
Turns out, he's fat.
Now, I'm pretty sure the Republicans didn't get together and say, "The problem with our current field is that none of the candidates are fat enough."
But based on the coverage I've seen so far, well, he's fat.
Now, to be fair, a lot of journalists have too much professional pride to lower themselves to covering something as childish and insipid as that, and so they are filing important, insightful stories about how everyone but them is talking about Christie being really fat.
Which reminds me of one of my nieces, who, at a very young toddlery age, was lectured on the topic of how rude it is to make personal observations in public and, being a good little girl, took it very seriously and decided then and there to improve her behavior.
So the next day in the grocery store, she said to my sister, in the loud, untempered voice of a toddler that carries at least three aisles, "Mommy? Mommy? I'm not going to say that lady's fat, Mommy. Mommy? I'm not going to say that lady's fat!"
We didn't, at the time, recognize this as a sign of her potential to one day win a Pulitzer.
Wuerker makes the point that, not only is it an incredibly silly topic in these serious times, but, hey, half of America is fat. The anorexically telegenic reporters on TV news may find Christie's girth a topic of curious interest, but he's no freak to the rest of the country.
As a former reporter and editor, I've been offended by the repeated claims that the "Mainstream Media" conspires to fix the news, for instance, to suppress coverage of the Wall Street demonstrations. That's simply not how it works, and I say that from personal experience: If I have seen farther than most journalists, it is not because I have stood on the shoulders of giants but because I have stood in the company of midgets.
I know for a fact that the Mainstream Media couldn't conspire to order a pizza, and the only thing that upsets me more than the unbridled stupidity of my fellow-journalists is the suggestion that they're doing it on purpose.
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
There may be, however, something you could call "malicious stupidity," which is kind of like "invincible ignorance," in that it may be involuntary but it certainly isn't harmless. Still, Aquinas held, and Catholic teachings affirm, that a person who is absolutely incapable of understanding the gravity, consequences and evil of their actions cannot be held morally responsible for them.
Here is what the news industry is capable of understanding: TV needs ratings to survive, and on-line news sites need clicks.
Which means, if we're so smart, that we need only insist reporters get back on topic, because they will trim their sails to the prevailing wind.
Right now, however, the wind is blowing out of Dumbassland, and it has for some time. The evidence is in the "top rated" stories at HuffPost, and was evident long before that.
Uncle Walter is no longer here to make us eat our spinach, and so spinach is no longer on the menu. In its place is foolish coverage for foolish people, and, if that seemed at first a curiosity, it has long since become commonplace.
In 1994, when MTV newsmonkey Tabitha Soren prompted a 17-year-old to ask Bill Clinton about his underwear preferences at a political "Town Hall," the kid was dismissed as an idiot for asking the question and Clinton as one for answering it.
Little did we know that, within two decades, CNN's John King would be asking candidates for the presidency of the world's remaining superpower their preferences in late night talk shows, soft drinks, pizza and chicken wings.
I'd have voted for the candidate who called him out on it, but, of course, it didn't happen.
The economy may be in the tank, but at least we're still well supplied with bread and circuses.
(That's only a metaphor. We're actually running out of bread.)
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