Tweety 3-P

Sometimes they have all the right ingredients: By that I mean news stories which combine Twitter's vacuousness, with parochial political pandering (known as a "3-P") and media desperate for news on a slow day.

I refer, of course, to the short outbursts from Sen. Charles Grassley who used Twitter to dump on the First Family for having the audacity to vacation somewhere "Over There": "Pres Obama" he tweeted, " You got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us"time to deliver" on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.

Clearly, the Senator is upset that the President used his week's You Tube address to apply the pressure on health care reform. But Grassley was also obviously trying to exploit the anger of his fellow Iowans, who are upset in this non election year that candidates and their media entourages might choose someplace other than Dubuque to spend their time traipsing around. I mean, how you gonna bring 'em back to the farm, after they've seen Paree?

That's a song from the First World War. But it's time for Senator Grassley to fast forward about 90 years to the political war over health care and dealing with that early volley the President fired from "across the pond."

After all, Grassley is not just the Senator from the State Fair. He's also the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, who will have a huge amount of influence over what new plan will emerge, and when, or even whether. He might want to spend less time on petulant Tweet tweaks and more on the incredibly complex nuts and bolts of our broken system.

For that matter, we in media probably ought to do the same thing. There are reasons fewer and fewer people pay attention to us. One of them might be our irrelevance. Another might be that we can be totally boring, which is a cryin' shame when we are covering stuff that really matters.

Which brings me to the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotamayor. I hate to admit this but apparently we have run out of things to say. Obviously, the Supremes are really REALLY important and all that and her Latino heritage is historic, but if I read one more article or see one more TV report on how her ethnicity might influence American jurisprudence, I'm probably going to throw up.

Yes, let's do cover the story. But let's find something fresh, not regurgitate the same stuff. We're supposed to do NEWS, not OLDS.

Another in the list of stories I'm finding hard to stomach is the one we've been doing since the November election. You know, the one that lists the leading Republican prospects for the next go-around? By now we've probably memorized them: Romney, Gingrich (another Twitter king), Palin, along with Yada, Yada and Yada. Etc.

Come to think of it, maybe it's already time for them to make with the exploratory visits to Iowa. That way they can mollify Senator Grassley. See how it all comes together?

Comments

[RobinSeattle]

"3P" is a term used in Japanese porn for a threesome. I think I just learned more about Franken's leisure habits than I wanted to.

[Hammerlock]

Keep in mind that most of these guys are old and technophobic. That they use these newfangled interwebnet tools is great, and kudos to them for trying, but their efforts in the medium are painfully juvenile because they are frankly out of their comfort zone.

That said, there's a use for circuses and entertainment in news to keep attention, certainly. But one look at CNN these days is a cautionary tale at how not to do it--or rather, how to do it to excess (really, faux-holograms??)

A better model might be the Daily Show, as sad as it sounds: focus on the facts and stories, while throwing in the occasional prepared segment. Obviously, a reduced comedic bent might be in order, but the base framework is useful. (the irony being TDS being modelled off of news shows as they used to be)

And for the love of all that's honest, all media outlets need to drop the Bloviating Pundit. Seriously.

[mommadona]

It's time to stop politicking, reporting on politicking, and pontificating about the reports of politicking,

It is time to GOVERN.

The Republicans ONLY know how to campaign. They hate government.

Hence, they are not the majority.

BUT - THEY HAVE TAKEN THAT OATH TO REPRESENT U.S.

That's what they get paid the big bucks to do.

START GOVERNING, ALREADY.