CSotD: The ACA gets Gored
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Jen Sorensen has become something of the standard bearer for the Affordable Care Act, which is okay with me. I like my standard bearers to have some passion for the standard they bear, and I'm also glad she's received some credit beyond the alternative comics world for her advocacy.
(Before we go any farther, I'm going to point out that, while she doesn't have a book out, she sells personally signed copies of her work at an incredibly affordable price. I say this because I use her work here more often than I feel comfortable with. Give her some of your money. And now, back to our program.)
She hits the mark squarely with this one, and it scares me.
I was just involved in a fruitless on-line discussion, which may be a redundant expression, about B-roll, those canned video features that local TV stations buy as filler material for their local news. Someone was conflating them into a conspiracy theory that the news is being managed by some central brain trust, which is a blatant violation of the rule that one should never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
Or, more specifically, to see conspiracies that can be more simply explained by laziness and lack of imagination.
There is another rule, which is known as Proverbs 26:4, which is "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him." I violate that one all the time, but wotthehell, I also talk to the dog. In terms of wasted discussions, responding to Internet posts is only a slight step down from that.
But I love the British term "newsreader," because terms like "anchor" and "reporter" give these people way too much credit. I'm not here today, however, to pile on the Ted Baxters and Ron Burgundys so much as to point out the real perils of this pack journalism and "received wisdom."
I did not want Bob Dole to win the presidency in 1996, but there was no prejudice involved in my having said, "Uh-oh, he's screwed," when Jay Leno began repeatedly making age jokes about him in the "Tonight Show" monologue. Leno speaks to, and for, the booboisie, and once he declared Dole fair game for mockery, the game was over.
In retrospect, Dole's candidacy was little more to begin with than a Lifetime Achievement Award from grateful Republicans, who knew Clinton was going to win re-election. Leno was simply a picador, shoving in his lance to draw first blood from a bull whose slaughter was foreordained.
I feel worse about what the media did to Al Gore, not because I liked him but because it was cheap and dishonest and impacted what turned out to be a very close election.
And it was avoidable. That is, the whole issue of the Swift Boat liars and John Kerry was not cheap (someone paid a lot to bankroll that initiative) nor was it as innocently stupid: It took a substantial breach of common sense to play "on the one hand, but on the other" with the clearly flawed testimonies and serious accusations involved in that.
The branding of Al Gore as a serial liar involved far less effort on the part of his enemies and far more laziness, pack-mentality and incompetence on the part of the media.
The chief example is the "Al Gore invented the Internet" meme, which was so demonstrably false that repeating it was like reporting that Lincoln had come out against the cemetery at Gettysburg because he said "we cannot hollow this ground."
Not only was it not what he meant, it wasn't even what he said.
At least — whether it was fair or germane to harp on it — Bob Dole really was old. Gore was ridiculed and his credibility undercut by a complacent, lazy media who joined in by adding to the impression, misreporting what he said about Love Canal and creating the "Al Gore lies" legend, which was then perpetuated and spread by reporters too lazy or perhaps not bright enough to do their own homework.
And so now the website for the Affordable Care Act is an admitted shambles, and the piling on has begun. "On the Media" has had some excellent coverage of what is actually going on and how much it matters, but they are preaching to the choir.
The congregation, meanwhile, is getting a clear message that, since the bus that was supposed to pick up the kids wouldn't start, our entire public educational system is a total failure that needs to be scrapped in favor of private schools.
The drumbeat of "It doesn't work!" has begun.
Betamax was clearly inferior to VHS.
The Edsel was obviously a lousy car.
Al Gore was a liar.
Obamacare won't work.
*sigh*
Media laziness and public gullibility are a couple of pre-existing conditions Obamacare can't cover.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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