Category: rant, sorta
04/10/07 08:47 - ID#38842
"I fathered Anna Nicole's Baby!!"
Having stumbled through journalism school and almost home on the Masters, and generally being a bit of a media junkie, I've had a lot of food for thought lately.
Last week's reporting of who raised the most money campaigning for president made me wonder if all the national media outlets (aside from the Onion and Utne Reader) have gone around the bend. The thing that ultimately pisses me off a little is that such reporting basically annoints candidates as viable and to a degree influences voter choices. And before I incur (e:Joshua)'s wrath for picking on Fox again, it struck me that MSNBC (home of the newly color blind Don Imus) was worst at this. They were continually harping on how much the money tally means for Obama versus how much it means for Clinton. Should other candidates reorganize? etc. Since the republican tallies weren't quite as high, MSNBC didn't spend a whole lot on those candidates. Mitt Romney raised the most (the hell kind of name is Mitt?) and they ignored him preferring to overanalyze on Guiliani & McCain. If I haven't bored you to tears yet, you might wonder what difference this makes. All it means is that they can all afford to keep campaigning (shocker there) long before we wanted them to. It's funny because of none of this has anything to do with what any of these people would do as president. It's literally reporting because there is nothing else to say, but continued reporting like that could prop up somebody not worth propping up (cough, John Edwards) or deflate somebody unnecessarily (carping on McCain for being weak as a fundraiser hardly seemed important
(e:jenks) mentioned her love of TIVO. I hold mine in similar high regard. Mine offered up Bill Maher's last show on HBO. Maher was asking about the candidates in talking with Chris Rock. Rock's initial answer was he wished "Gore would get in it soon. He's more qualified than all the others out there." Not sure, I agree, but an interesting take nonetheless.
Don't remember a presidential campaign getting this ramped up so soon. When I was in school the first time, I made a good buck working for all the news organizations who couldn't be bothered to come near St. Bonaventure and the surrounding area. They all hired the week before. If we are voting in February, it would be cool if they (the candidates, the news organizations, etc) would cool it till the fall at least. We're not going to find anything out in the interim.
Argh
Last week's reporting of who raised the most money campaigning for president made me wonder if all the national media outlets (aside from the Onion and Utne Reader) have gone around the bend. The thing that ultimately pisses me off a little is that such reporting basically annoints candidates as viable and to a degree influences voter choices. And before I incur (e:Joshua)'s wrath for picking on Fox again, it struck me that MSNBC (home of the newly color blind Don Imus) was worst at this. They were continually harping on how much the money tally means for Obama versus how much it means for Clinton. Should other candidates reorganize? etc. Since the republican tallies weren't quite as high, MSNBC didn't spend a whole lot on those candidates. Mitt Romney raised the most (the hell kind of name is Mitt?) and they ignored him preferring to overanalyze on Guiliani & McCain. If I haven't bored you to tears yet, you might wonder what difference this makes. All it means is that they can all afford to keep campaigning (shocker there) long before we wanted them to. It's funny because of none of this has anything to do with what any of these people would do as president. It's literally reporting because there is nothing else to say, but continued reporting like that could prop up somebody not worth propping up (cough, John Edwards) or deflate somebody unnecessarily (carping on McCain for being weak as a fundraiser hardly seemed important
(e:jenks) mentioned her love of TIVO. I hold mine in similar high regard. Mine offered up Bill Maher's last show on HBO. Maher was asking about the candidates in talking with Chris Rock. Rock's initial answer was he wished "Gore would get in it soon. He's more qualified than all the others out there." Not sure, I agree, but an interesting take nonetheless.
Don't remember a presidential campaign getting this ramped up so soon. When I was in school the first time, I made a good buck working for all the news organizations who couldn't be bothered to come near St. Bonaventure and the surrounding area. They all hired the week before. If we are voting in February, it would be cool if they (the candidates, the news organizations, etc) would cool it till the fall at least. We're not going to find anything out in the interim.
Argh
Permalink: _quot_I_fathered_Anna_Nicole_s_Baby_quot_.html
Words: 429
Author Info
Date Cloud
- 07/18
- 02/15
- 04/14
- 03/14
- 02/14
- 01/14
- 12/13
- 11/13
- 10/13
- 09/13
- 08/13
- 07/13
- 06/13
- 05/13
- 04/13
- 03/13
- 02/13
- 01/13
- 12/12
- 11/12
- 10/12
- 09/12
- 08/12
- 07/12
- 06/12
- 05/12
- 04/12
- 03/12
- 02/12
- 01/12
- 12/11
- 11/11
- 10/11
- 09/11
- 08/11
- 07/11
- 06/11
- 05/11
- 04/11
- 03/11
- 02/11
- 01/11
- 12/10
- 11/10
- 10/10
- 09/10
- 08/10
- 07/10
- 06/10
- 05/10
- 04/10
- 03/10
- 02/10
- 01/10
- 12/09
- 11/09
- 10/09
- 09/09
- 08/09
- 07/09
- 06/09
- 05/09
- 04/09
- 03/09
- 02/09
- 01/09
- 12/08
- 11/08
- 10/08
- 09/08
- 08/08
- 07/08
- 06/08
- 05/08
- 04/08
- 03/08
- 02/08
- 01/08
- 12/07
- 11/07
- 10/07
- 09/07
- 08/07
- 07/07
- 06/07
- 05/07
- 04/07
- 03/07
- 02/07
- 01/07
- 12/06
- 11/06
- 10/06
- 09/06
- 08/06
- 07/06
- 06/06
- 05/06
- 04/06
- 03/06
- 02/06
- 09/05
- 06/05
- 05/05
- 04/05
- 08/04
Any joe sixpack can be honest, but a good politician the people really want will lie, cheat, beg, borrow, and steal on behalf of their constituents to get them what they want. And the person who is best at that kind of wheeling and dealing is the person who can raise the most money.
I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that might just be how our messed up world really works (according to my crackpot theories of political science, at least).
But the money issue is a very slightly almost interesting one. Mitt Romney was considered for a long while as a second tier candidate. But he out raised no money McCain (who would have been the de facto candidate two years ago) and Guiliani who didn't so much raise money as empty his piggy bank into the tax shelter known as campaign contribution.
Do we learn anything about them as candidates? No, not really. But people who care about such things can infer how the candidates party feels about them. So, what did we learn. Republicans don't care much about their candidates, and Democrats dig a few of theirs. Wow, a revelation that can turn our hair white like Moses.
But thank god for Tivo to ensure we always have plenty to watch other than the crappy ass news channels.