Rick Salutin, columnist with Canada's
Globe and Mail, writes:
Of course the population may decide to go with Howard Dean anyway. The media cannot impose their views; all they can do is try (unconsciously, of course, as Lord Hutton would say). So I'm not claiming a media conspiracy; just that they tend to be well-suited and professionally conditioned to spot incoming threats on the radar and react in a uniform, or copycat way.
The media's renowned critical powers mainly operate on those who violate rules inside the frame, or those like Howard Dean who breach it by saying the unspeakable. As for his famous scream in Iowa, it came long after he had been led out of the building by the media. For my money, he got on a roll, feeling the crowd, and reached his peak phrase ("The White House, in Washington, D.C.") regrettably early, with little to do but finish with a yelp. It could happen to any of us.
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