I watch Washington Journal on Cspan in the morning. They have a call in in the first segment on a topic of the day and I think it should be mandatory watching for the beltway bubble heads like pundits and pols.
This morning the topic was about the Sherrod case and the callers on both sides were great and toward the end the calls zeroed in on what seems to be what our media is ignoring - themselves and their failures.
President Obama, since he was a candidate, was known to let go of anyone bringing in controversy. However, I don't think this had anything to do with them.
We don't know what the under secretary meant when she said they or the WH, which is somewhat catchall. Like Vilsack is considered the administration and therefore, WH.
However, what would be the reaction of pundits and the public if Vilsack said he would wait to see what an investigation would reveal.
I mean, really.
Has there ever been an investigation on a news story before reacting?
The routine for our media is to pick it up and run with it and make it fact. Any finding of the story being a rightwing smear is done after the story long passed and is a blurb that no one hears or reads.
This is the first time a rightwing smear job has actually been fact checked and made into a big deal.
But, again the story and its point is misrepresented. Again the press is making this about the president. Like they make it all the time about the president.
It is not about Obama.
He is not a reality star. He is not the country's daddy. He is not the Wizard of Oz. He is not omnipotent. He is not the director of all that happens large and small. Or the conductor of our social and emotional and cultural lives.
He is president.
The media has convinced the public that the president is much more powerful and be all then the office really is. The office is only one of three branches and the president may direct what leglislation he wants but, has little control over what congress does. Or private business like BP. And administration heads like Vilsack run their own deptartments and make the decisions on firings.
But, the media, because they have egg on their face and are afraid of the bullies on the right have decided to make this story about Obama.
Not about the fact the rightwing has routinely been race baiting since the election. Have gone off the deep end.
That the tea party is about rightwing white boomers throwing a tempter tantrum over losing and their prejudices.
The media at first alluded to the fact and did raised the point that this was a woman set up by the right, Andrew Brietbart, and his larger goal to Acorn the Naacp. And that tape editing and smearing is what the rightwing media has been doing all along with this administration and with innocent people and the media's gullibility toward these stories pushed by the right.
This is about our willingness as a country to accept the worse about people and reject the best. We have been trained, dog whistled to respond to faux dramas cooked up to keep us in a constant outrage.
Frankly to be in a consstant state of outrage distorts our perceptions and our psyche. It messes with our well being and our emotional and mental state.
This story is not about the Administration or the president. they would have been raked over the coals if Ms. Sherrod was not immediately fired and people like Scarborough would have dedicated his rants to that.
This is about us, as a country, who have been trained by the rightwing and the media as a whole to accept gossip and smears as facts and to respond to everything with outrage, regardless of the story or facts, or even if it makes sense.
Mostly this is about the failure of our media. Who long ago stopped questioning content and doing the fact checking, the sourcing and the background work. Who have let cheap and easy gossip substitute for content. Who let the rightwing media set the agenda and the storyline.
Ratings over content. Horse race and polls instead of substance. Rightwing hatchet jobs as fact over the legwork needed to let the public know the facts.
Ginning up the constant conflict:
It's too juicy to not report it right away and to hell with whether it was mucked with.
And let's find a way to make it about the president, as always and tie it to the 2010 horse race and our need for the republicans to win so we have alot of drama storylines for the next years.
Update: a suggestion was made about forming a group here dealing with the problems with our media.
I have long advocated we hold them accountable and join in email campaigns to make them report truth when they are wrong.
Others have joined in to say they like this idea.
I don't know how to go about starting a Kos group but, I am sure if we get enough people involved, someone will know what to do.