Is There an Adult in the Room?

Thursday, April 28, 2011
Yes, I'm going to rant about the unserious among us once again - in this case, the media and the conspiracy theorists.

Seriously, birthers? Suddenly NOW you're convinced that the President's a natural born citizen? Because obviously you're such a CERTIFIED EXPERT on official documents issued by the State of Hawai'i? As opposed to say, I don't know, the Secretary of State of the Great State of Hawai'i?

Bitch, please.

This isn't about the President's eligibility to serve. As noted so eloquently by my friend Eric over at Standing on the Shoulders of Giant Midgets, the President has already satisfied that legal requirement, and the burden of proof isn't on him - it's on the racist dipwads who insist that his Presidency is some sort of vast Manchurian Candidate conspiracy.*

But far be it from the media not to give "equal time" to every half-baked, retarded idea out there. After all, letting that entitled, privileged, vile piece of crap Donald Trump stir shit up in the name of "asking questions" is just good television!

But not good news. News as in the responsibility of the Fourth Estate, you self-indulgent, unserious, cynical TOOLS. Can you imagine Edward R. Murrow interviewing someone like Trump on topics that actually matter to the Republic? I'm quite sure he'd rather have taken his own eye out with a spork.

As my shipmate Jim noted yesterday, the quality of our government - and our media - is in direct correlation to the quality of our citizens. And this latest brouhaha surely proves that we suck. We will get the government we deserve, and allowing this red herring to set the national conversation should tell us something about what we've done to deserve this.

Is there an adult in the room? In ANY room?

___________
*Just as it's on the dipwads to provide some substantiating evidence that Trig Palin isn't actually Sarah Palin's son. The pendulum must swing both ways, regardless of what a horrifying human being Ms. Palin may be.

9 comments:

Steve Buchheit said...

Beuller? Beuller? Beuller?

WendyB_09 said...

What made my ears bleed was Trump had the balls to take credit for the Presient's decision to release the full certificate. WTF!!!

I echo the President's sentiments-We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

Nice to know he agrees on just exactly what Trump's place in the universal pecking order is!

Warner (aka ntsc) said...

"Can you imagine Edward R. Murrow interviewing someone like Trump on topics that actually matter to the Republic? I'm quite sure he'd rather have taken his own eye out with a spork."

At some point during the Eisenhower years, Edward R. Murrow, in a dog costume, interviewed the squirrels interfering with Ike's putting green.

In addition Walter (all rise) Cronkite interviewed, among others, George Washington, as a news piece on how the revolutionary war was going. You Were There.

And there was talk of Peter Jennings doing the Stage Manager in a live production on the air of Our Town.

That said, I tend to agree with you, none of the three shows claimed to be news.

Warner (aka ntsc) said...

I may have the name of the Cronkite show wrong, it was series of historical re-enactments he did in the early 50s.

Although he did not as Mary Lincoln, 'other than that how was the play?"

Eric said...

The Cronkite series was You Are There, and was an educational series built around the conceit of a modern newsroom reporting historic events. At least some of the episodes were converted to film--I remember seeing at least one episode in elementary school (for some reason I want to say it was a Salem Witch Trials episode, but that may just be mental dust bunnies).

Thing was, while it wasn't "news," it was an educational program that took itself seriously and incorporated the entertainment angle for pedagogical purposes; Cronkite's role in the show as "newsanchor"/host capitalized on his credibility and already iconic voice and face to (cliche alert) make learning fun. But what really sucks (curmudgeon alert) is that it was a product of an era that seemed to take education and the role of the news media in teaching and informing the public more seriously than anybody seems to these days. It's a little hard to imagine CNN or Fox News doing a weekly program in which their top talent pretends to cover historic events in a non-partisan manner (as far as I can recall from what I saw, the only ideology in You Are There, for better or worse, was that America is great and historically important, which was the implicit majority ideology of American historians and teachers in general during that era; i.e. the show was "historically accurate," albeit in a way that the late Howard Zinn might have taken issue with (hence the scare quotes)).

As to the business with the President's birth certificate, I've gone from being amused to being angry to being horribly depressed over it. Baratunde Thurston's comments have gone viral (and will be posted on Giant Midgets tomorrow if anyone's one of the five people who haven't seen the clip), and they nail what has happened: this is a bunch of fucking white people asking a black guy for his papers, challenging his right to participate in the American political process. It's a humiliation and a travesty, is what it is, and what the news media has done is, at it's essence, endorse racism. It's utterly shameful.

Warner (aka ntsc) said...

Eric

I remember as a young boy eagerly awaiting that show.

I never had the privilege of meeting Cronkite, I have met Walters, Rather, Brinkley and Jennings.

Jennings actually knew my name, which made me feel very big.

I can not speak for CBS or NBC, but ABC News went out of their way under Arledge and before him to get it right. Not so much after, as the bottom line became the thing. It drove Jennings and others up walls.

I worked for the Census in 2010, the document originally produced by the President was in and of itself sufficient to prove citizenship for employment.

Janiece said...

Eric, I'm just fucking disgusted, for all the reasons Baratunde Thurston outlined. I'm a bit past the whole "why can't we all just along" because I've come to the conclusion that the answer is because there are some people who are just too stupid to live.

I'm feeling a bit cynical today...

Anne C. said...

I've been so disappointed with the quality of News Reporting for the last two or three years that I have ceased to have any respect for most of the major networks anymore.

I enjoyed Baratunde Thurston's piece -- it was very much from the heart -- but I disagree that everything the civil rights movement has worked towards has been wiped out, denigrated, made worthless. We have an African American president and he has a good chance of being re-elected. Over half this country is not as ignorant and racist as it may appear from the loud and unpleasant rabble that we hear. YES, racism still exists. YES, we still need to be vigilant about it every day. And, unfortunately, NO, we cannot put faith in the people we see on TV. Did the Civil Rights movement power through all that crap because of the support of people on TV? No. It was the daily work of real people. To feel like the work of thousands was negated by the posturing and racist comments of a carnival barker and the implied support of a fallen industry is to ascribe too much power to Trump and Fox. He'll be dropped, just like Palin, when money is to be made elsewhere.

All in all, I think people cede too much power to others to negatively affect their lives. My opinion (all of it) of course.

Karen said...

I have not watched the 'News' for years, having long since discovered that have they are less than impartial and prone to reporting issues supported by thier network. I am sure you have noticed the wordplay after a Presidential speech when the commentors riff off on, well what he said was this but what he MEANT, meaning you and I are too dense to pick on this, was that. The coverage of the so called 'Birther' issue should be laughable. That was treated as a serious, credible issue says a lot about the susceptibility of the average viewer. And what that says is scary indeed.