The Media Parties Like It's 1997

Looking over the political coverage of the past week, a casual observer might think s/he was back in the 1990s. There's a big scandal involving the Democratic governor of Illinois trying to sell the president-elect's senate seat. Will it hurt the party? The incoming administration? Caroline Kennedy wants to be the next junior senator from New York. Are the Democrats embracing dynastic politics? The president-elect gives a press conference announcing the new secretary of education -- in which he dodges questions and bores reporters present -- just like his obfuscating predecessors.

I sympathize. The fact is, there isn't much political news right now, though there's a great hunger for it. Obama is not yet president. He's making appointments, but those people aren't actually doing anything yet. Bush is making dog videos. And Congress has adjourned after deadlocking on the auto bailout.

But what we see here is more than just an attempt to fill space. The media is falling back into old habits perfected during the vaporous Clinton scandals of the 1990s. The not-so-subliminal message in this coverage: You thought things would be different with Obama. But they're not. Politics as usual. Scandals. Spin. Coverups. And, if we're lucky, a feeding frenzy!

Drill down a little, though, and most of this huffing is off-base. Take Dana Milbank's piece on Obama's press conference. Is it reasonable to expect a press conference announcing the new education secretary to be anything but deadly dull? Is it reasonable to expect Obama to step into the state-level political tempest over how to choose his replacement in the Senate? Or to opine on an investigation in which he is at best very tangentially involved? When Clinton or Bush "dodged questions" about investigations, they (or their subordinates) were the ones being investigated. I'm not saying that scenario will never come to pass with Obama -- odds are, it will at some point -- just that the accusation is silly right now.

Enormous changes are brewing in the country and in government itself. Big Government is back -- and it may be the only thing that can save us. This has tremendous implications for American politics. The political media, however, doesn't seem to get this. It's bad at covering the actual workings of government, the nexus of politics and policy. In a pinch, it always returns to a set of commonly-held tropes and cliches forged during the Clinton scandals of the 1990s. Proven cable chat-generators, these focus heavily on the habitual hypocrisy of politicians, the always-disjointed relationship between their words and actions -- but not on the substance of the actions themselves.

This is both predictable and comforting -- all the more reason we're seeing it now, when no one knows what the hell is going to happen. But not promising.

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Comments

[barackobama4prez]

Also, americans are scared things are going to get much worse before they get better. So we aren't in the mood for juicy scandals when we can't buy the things we need or keep the job we like.

[Rescisco]

"Scandals. Spin. Coverups. And, if we're lucky, a feeding frenzy!"

That's it exactly. Rip, read, and play it for ratings. Its a heck of a lot easier than explaining the economic crisis or understanding the Middle East. It requires no work, no facts, no thought, and in a land where journalism no longer exists its cheap production costs are made for television in the age of "reality" programing.

[SiberianRat]

Well put.

[WhoneedsGoverment]

Let me tell you about the 1990's era media....t­hey convinced the republican party to spend 50 extra large' to research how to get and cover up getting a blow-job..­..all televised and in print, so forth and so on.
NOW they are experts...­Pros if you will.

.

[dollardream]

"Enormous changes are brewing in the country and in government itself. Big Government is back -- and it may be the only thing that can save us. This has tremendous implications for American politics. The political media, however, doesn't seem to get this. It's bad at covering the actual workings of government, the nexus of politics and policy. In a pinch, it always returns to a set of commonly-held tropes and cliches forged during the Clinton scandals of the 1990s. Proven cable chat-generators, these focus heavily on the habitual hypocrisy of politicians, the always-disjointed relationship between their words and actions -- but not on the substance of the actions themselves­."

You get it!
Thanks.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Does the Democratic leadership sincerely want a difference?

If so, those in such positions must do something other than just act as a passive punching bag for the neocon media.

They need to speak up.

What are they waiting for?

[vjoseph]

They are weak and that is the problem. Obama is going to have to teach these weaklings how to do things right

[kathy001]

Nothing going on politically? Well, maybe Bush's new restrictions on abortions and birth control for poor women aren't really political. Maybe Bush's new environmental regulations aren't political and maybe Bush's auctioning off wilderness landto big oil isn't political. I'd say it is but maybe I'm wrong. Still, it's news - it's big news. And the nit-wits passing themselves off as "the media" are completely mum on all these things. There's plenty to actually report on - there's plenty to investigate. But it's just so much easier - and so much more lucrative - to invent bs to shove down the throats of a public that can't seem to wake up to what is really going on behind all the media bs.

[vjoseph]

That is what John is pointing at. The fact that the media is not doing its job

[OneLiberalLady]

What about the bi-partisan report on torture that was released late last week? You would think they would report on that.

[Lark817]

The day the scandal broke in Illinois didn't P-E Obama spend hours with Al Gore? I have yet to hear a single word about that meeting and what was discussed, and I am obviously a news junkie, (I must be, I'm here). I couldn't care less about the governor's jogging habits. Even MSNBC; I love them but they need to stop telling us how bad they are over at Fox/Fix/Faux News and just give us the story already.

[MansfieldX]

Yea!!!! Big Government is Back!! Thank GOD!!! Oooops! Sorry, Thanks be to Man! Government can fix everything. We need more regulation, more taxes, and much more oversight of those dastardly conservatives! We need more laws and more lawyers! Trial Lawyers especially! they are the best! They sue the pants off those damn corporations! I mean, someone has to be rich why not them! They produce good things that we can all use, like more Laws and more Regulations! Thank GOD! ooops! Sorry, no, Thanks be to Man! Now we are saved and, Now we are going to have a Corruption-free, intellectual, and world-friendly government!!! WoooHooo!

[pmag88]

Yeah, the media is partly to blame for many of the ills of our society and the Blogojevich things a perfect example. Lets just say that we all agree the Blogjevich stuff is dirty politics and that we are against the ‘pay for play, horse trading, deal making, style of politics that it represents. That being the case, the level of attention the media is giving this one rather small example, is sort of like standing in a cesspool, bending over, picking up a piece of poop, then saying, aren’t I good at finding poop in a cesspool. Is it possible that for many in the media, getting poop and being poop are one and the same?

[ProfessorDuh]

The Fed gives away $2 TRILLION in public money to its corporate pals IN SECRET. The Pentagon THROWS AWAY $100 BILLION in Iraq and LIES ABOUT IT. And what's the corporate media news? How can we hang Blagojevich around Obama's neck without evidence?

[Insurgent]

Good point. The American press is really shallow -- the industry as a whole abandoned real investigative reporting years ago, and they consistently miss the big stories that affect the public the most: weapons of mass destruction and the subprime mortgage crisis are the most prominent examples.

One of the main problems is that the media itself is totally enmeshed with the governments and the corporations -- the top editors/re­porters/an­chors send their kids to the same schools that government and corporate leaders do -- and hence the media are just lapdogs for the powers that be.

Another big problem is that with the rise of the internet, noone knows how to make money off the news anymore, so on the one hand there's all this shallow tabloid-style coverage of serious issues in order to sell papers and airtime, and on the other hand news operations are laying off reporters left and right.

It's not only the government and the corporations that need total transformation: the media itself is corrupt and incompetent and needs a complete overhaul as well.

[carrieanna]

Really, all that's needed is for the people, the consumers, to use media that is better. If everyone flocked to PBS, I'm sure the CBS and CNNs would likely try to copy the format. Your average person reads/watches the stuff on the main channels out of basic laziness. It's doubtful that we could change all the mainstream users into primarily "alternative" news users. Alternative news (BBC, Al Jazeera, etc) requires more effort on the consumer's part...and may not seem as "entertain­ing." Thus, they stick with the regular news channels, enticing advertisers flock to those channels and building up more "entertaining" news programs.

Not to mention all the people who consider celebrity news as news. Not only do we have Inside Edition, TMZ and the channel E!, even guys like CNN report on Britney and Paris. As long as people eat that stuff up, the channels will air it.

[mountainweb]

obama will get even more of a pass on the "hard questions" than Clinton ever hoped for since the media hailed obama as the next messiah come to save the world. If you thought they were soft on the Clinton "incidents" you have not seen anything yet...... He just blew off a reporters valid question and they took it like a bunch of whipped puppies...­..

[research]

Not seen anything yet?

We've had 8 Years of Bush's criminal empire!

Oh, to only worry about the presidents dalliances.

[judibluiz]

"Soft on the Clinton "incidents"? You've got to be joking! The media trashed the Clinton's for 8 years.

[SangZe]

We have no news media. All we have are ad-men and toadies. Journalism in the U.S. is long dead.

[PhilipTaylor]

Our Media is FOCUSED on Short Term "RUBBER-NECKING TRAIN WRECKS" and ignores the Long Term "TRAIN WRECKS" probably because they do not want to spend the time to understand them and put them in language Americans can Understand!

Dana Milbank is WRONG the News Conference is not DULL it is MEDIA's HEADS that are DULL!

The Media could do a lot better coverage of the Corrupt Bush Administration's NOT Funding the Big 3 Auto companies. There are at least a dozen angles to that!

How about explaining the Energy, Foreign, or Environmental Policies likely to be put forward and their impact on Americans. Obama is introducing team after team and the media is lucky to put together two paragraphs on each!

Media Get to Work on EDUCATING YOURSELVES and explain the IMPORTANT NEWS to Americans that actually impact their LIVES.

MEDIA Stop being so LAZY! There is plenty of Meaty Topics right under your NOSE! Let Americans do their own "Rubber-Necking!"

[flexo]

The Bush Admin. actually championed the auto bailout - it was Senate Republicans who killed it. True story.

[research]

Big Government never left.

Not since WWII.

The GOP make the government MUCH larger with war and fascism.

The Democrats make it bigger with public works and the "general Welfare"

[moderate1]

I literally laughed out loud when I read that. Someone's been reading to much Kos.

[research]

I rarely read kos.

Do you have a point, or just mocking condescension?

[kathy001]

Good one. Really, really, REALLY good point.

[Overd0g]

And they're right. We're talking about politicians here, after all.