PalinDrones

If nothing else, and I suspect there may really be nothing else, Sarah Palin gives us a magnified view of weaknesses of the punditocracy, which we might begin to call the Palindrones.

Can't you feel the "what planet are they from?" dissonance in your bones as the Right Wing complains about press mistreatment of Palin -- as you watch the mesmerized media jawbones fairly worship the tundra she walks upon?

So what's up with this? Why would Wolf Blitzer and others call Palin's speech "a grand slam," when they know in their hearts (they must know, mustn't they?) that her remarks were little more than a pedestrian speech writer's angry and somewhat juvenile hate-speech? They must have noticed it was delivered by a rather goofy sounding mystery girl who might be quirky enough to be the eccentric villain in an upcoming Coen Brothers movie. Right?

Of course the convention hall loved her. They were given scripts that read, "Love Sarah Palin Now." Easiest audience in show businesses, although someone ought to teach them to really dance in the aisles. The GOP conventioneers looked a little like caught fish flopping in the bottom of "the first dude's" fishing boat.

Sometimes my heart sinks as I watch the talking head sideshow. I became a journalist in the mid-1970s in large part because of the heroic work of the press I'd been fortunate to witness as I came of age. The Pentagon Papers. Watergate. I trusted John Chancellor, Frank Reynolds and Walter Cronkite. At least, I didn't suspect they were dependable pawns of the powerful.

But now, well, I don't trust any of them. I am forced to assume from the moment I start watching that they are not motivated by concern over the future of people I care about, that is, my neighbors in America and the world. Instead, their first concern is their own celebrity. Access to the political stars. The ratings they draw. All much more important to them than the truth, whatever that is anymore.

"A star is born," they say of Palin. But no star is born that the media themselves don't nurse. She's their baby. Unless they say so, she's no star. Hell, no one in America even knows her. So far, the only thing she's done is read a teleprompter into a t.v. camera in front of an adoring audience. That's it. Nothing else.

That's the first answer to my "what's up with this" question. It's often forgotten that media personalities know there is as much juice for them in creating stars as there is in tearing them down. It's the Howard Cosell/Mohammed Ali thing. Except, of course, Ali turned out to be the real thing.

The second answer is harder to say, but no less true. The national political press has since the Reagan years been completely intimidated by the Right. They are cowed. If they could, they'd give the American Right Austria and Poland. That's how afraid they are.

The third answer is simple bias. Many of the Palindrones came of age in the Bush and Clinton years, and they are simply conservatives who prefer conservative government and have many sources on the Right they don't want to antagonize. The Left sees in Palin a real life Tracy Flick from the movie Election. But the media is full of Tracy Flicks, in both male and female incarnations. They are ambitious. They want power. They want money. And the conservative movement has offered them a more certain route to those riches than the Left.

There are some more innocent if no less annoying motivations behind the Palindronic media. They want a close race, and building her up helps give them what they want. Like most humans, they want recognition and they want to think they are somehow close to historic events, so the more than help bring about "historic" events the better chance they have of being seen as close to the events they invent. Get it? It's a heady feeling.

Last on my list: fear. Today's working jawbones have reached the top of their field just as the field begins to dissolve beneath their feet. Alternative media really is destroying yesterday's media-ecosystem, (echo system?). Also, while they are proud of their status, it's hard for them to take much pride in the world they like to tell themselves they've helped create. They are afraid for their own futures. And, deep inside, they are afraid of what they themselves have done. Fear has made them easier for the Right to intimidate. Fear makes them more conservative.

These journalists are just people, vulnerable, flawed, imperfect. They could never be what any of us of any political stripe really want them to be. We ask too much. But there was a time when national journalists really did seem to have more altruistic motivations. Maybe it was just an accident of history. Maybe at the time, the road to power, recognition and wealth meant they had to end an unjust war and take down a president. Today that road to power means they seek to prolong a war and protect the powers that be.

Comments

[cinecitta99]

I love you, I can't believe what I'm not hearing - intelligent analysis from the pundits, saying that the Queen is wearing no clothes. How did reckless McCain luck out so?

[arvay]

CNN and other media outlets are so afraid of alienating viewers that they will alternately cater to different persuasions in their audiences, or more precisely, markets. CNN would like to take some viewers from Fox, so help create some excitement for this rube and maybe Wolf's audience will increase.

This isn't journalism, it's a kind of entertainment that plays with politics, whose primary function is the attract audiences and advertisers.

America has a large, dumbed-down population segment which resents any effort to upset its preconfigured ideas. Wake it up with uncomfortable facts, it will switch to some moronic reality show.

It's sometimes useful to watch BBC America to get a better take on events, especially if you want to know about things in parts of the world that don't interest Boobis Amercanus.

The Greeks had it wrong: who the gods want to destroy they don't make mad, they make them stupid.

[gtt]

I agree, I too miss Cronkite. Palin's shallow attacks on the media, followed by her hidding from the press would have never been tolerated by Cronkite. He would have made direct comment about this and with his massive respect, she would have either had to face some inquiry or fade real heat.

[mal0980]

Gov. Palin's speech was juvenile and only contained insults. The only reason she is star is because McCain and the networks made her into one. But trust me when McCain and her lose in November she will go back into obscurity in Alaska never to be heard from again just like Sen. Barry Goldwater's running mate William Miller in 1964.

[katysax]

Thank you. It's driving me crazy that the MSM would not call her out.

[eden4barack08]

This is what they call their balancing act. Be afraid of looking like you're in the tank for "libruls", but not fear whatsoever in lavishing the right with compliments even when inaccurate.

[Myshkin57]

Thank you for affirming that either I'm not crazy or, at the very least, that I'm not the only one who's crazy. Palin's speech was one of the worst I've ever seen, including middle school student government election speeches. Not only was it bad, but she didn't write it and delivered it poorly. She pronounced most of the words correctly, but other than that, it should have been deemed a tremendous flop.

It's sad that the bar has been set so low. I now really appreciate Hillary Clinton. I didn't vote for her in the primaries, but at least I could respect her intellect and skill. I think that the Democrats need Hillary out speaking every day about how difficult it was to deal with the press but how glad she was that the media treated her the same as the men. She needs to push that he real victory was that she made it that far and they didn't treat her with kid gloves. That's what was important about her candidacy and that's what they need to be saying non-stop for the next two months.

[Pogopaws]

Well put. She might also mention that it is a candidate's duty in a democratic society to speak with the press and the press's responsibilty to hold candidate's to account.
Well, we can but hope....

[Higherground]

I've seen people deliver more substanitive speeches at a Mary Kay convention. (I'm serious).

[blaising]

Palin?? Who is she??

If she won't talk to the press I'm gonna have to assume all those rumors are true!

Oh well...

File her under "trivial pursuit questions".

[RobinLandseadel]

"They must have noticed it was delivered by a rather goofy sounding mystery girl who might be quirky enough to be the eccentric villain in an upcoming Coen Brothers movie. Right?"

Right, she's a second-rate actress playing an extremely vindictive character on "Northern Exposure." She's Maurice J. Minnifield's meaner daughter.

[feo]

At a minimum, pundits needed to ask how a person who believes in creationsim can be considered smart enough to hold any public office.

[marikad]

sounded like a high school speech class performance at best. the content was mostly false and the delivery was mediocre. cmon media- it's your job to make these observations.

[withcheese]

Watch PBS. They still have some Republican mouthpieces like David Brooks in place and do things like only getting analysis from 3 conservatives but I think it is better (and cheaper) than cable news.

I keep hearing elsewhere how "appealing" she is and that is just bizarre to me. I thought she was pretty until the first time she opened her weird mouth. After her big speech I found her arrogant, condescending, sarcastic and ambitious in the nastiest way possible. What is appealing exactly? The way she curls her lip up and sneers or the grating tone of her voice?

We have our own local version of Palin in politics and I bet there is one in almost every town. She creates a situation where she is bound to be questioned and then plays the "underdog" coming back with enough distraction so that the questions never get answered. The truth is that she never was a victim of the press and the liberals did not attack. She was only questioned.

[knerd]

Intentions don't matter. Only results do. And judging from the way a certain part of the conservative base has exploded into hysterical histrionics over Sarah Palin, her speech--in that sense at least--was incredibly effective.

She hit it out of the ballpark. And the bat she used for her home run was made from wood that has been shaped, sanded, prepped and varnished by ingnorant American fundamentalists and neocons for the last two decades.

[bwilder]

I take great solace in the fact that the alternative news and information sources
now available have become the source of truth for so many. The simple
fact that Obama raised over 8 million in 24 hours tell me that many people all
over the country are not relying on the MSM for the truth.

And the truth is what we're seeking.

Yes, many people enjoy watching the 'train wreck.' And many of the same people
also realize it's fiction. No longer dependent on it for the facts they need to make
the important decisions in their lives.

Journalists (the real one journalists) can find their home and their audience
in the alternative media. The times they are a changin'