Aggrepost: Of Reality, Talking Points, Polls, and MTV
» LAT: "Does Iraq need more debate?" (Martin Kaplan)
Some pure brilliance woven into this opinion peice ...
From healthcare to education, immigration to entitlements, there's hardly an issue on the national radar screen that hasn't been nominated for a cleansing and clarifying national debate.But what would a national debate on anything really look like? How would it be any different from what we're already doing now? Imagine the elements of a national debate on Iraq, and then ask whether what's going on today fits the bill.
Analysts offering opposing views on television shows? Check. Dueling Op-Ed pieces? Check. Senators and representatives making floor speeches? Check. Presidential candidates staking out positions, and critics taking them on? Check. Magazines and journals offering thoughtful, conflicting takes? Check. A take-no-prisoners brawl in the blogosphere? Check. Public opinion polls? You can't go to the restroom without tripping over a new one. Thousands of people in the streets? Well, it's not like the Vietnam era — without a draft, it won't ever be — but plenty of cities have seen plenty of passionate marchers.
So why, despite all appearances of actually having a national debate right now, do people keep insisting that we mount one?
Perhaps it's because the mainstream media are too timid to declare the difference between right and wrong. Imagine if journalism consisted of more than a collage of conflicting talking points. Imagine the difference it would make if more brand-name reporters broke from the bizarre straitjacket of "balance," which equates fairness with putting all disputants on equal epistemological footing, no matter how deceitful or moronic they may be.
There's a market for news that weighs counterclaims and assesses truth value. It just hasn't kept up with demand. No wonder Jon Stewart has such a loyal audience: He has a point of view, and it's rooted in the reality-based — not the ideology-based — world.
...Maybe we don't need a national debate. Maybe what we really need are leaders with more character, followers with more discrimination, deciders who hear as well as listen and media that know the difference between the public interest and what the public is interested in. National debates nicely fulfill the circus part of the bread-and-circuses formula of modern public life. Like psychoanalysis, national debates are basically interminable. And in our postmodern era, they do a nice job substituting for the hard work of actually figuring out what's true and what's good.
Perhaps the only quarrel I might pick with Kaplan is that I don't see it as the aim of the media to determine truth and goodness on a universal level across the spectrum of every type of story that runs in a newspaper. Granted, there's a range of stories - particularly in the realm of political coverage - where Kaplan's prescription represent a huge improvement. But I'd be more than a little content seeing a media that isn't afraid to challenge spin as the bunk that it often is. Instead of say, cutting to the "He said/She said" format, look for facts rather than a counterclaiming quote to balance things out.
» PressThink: "Retreat from Empiricism: On Ron Suskind's Scoop" (Jay Rosen)
» TPM: "Bush's Dead Letter" (Josh Marshall)
» TPM Muck: "Bush Dodges Question on Overruling Military Brass" (Paul Kiel)
Three critical reads on the inanity of Bush's predicted "surge" option. Starting with Rosen's revival of the Suskind/McKinnon quote about "reality-based" decision-making in the White House and you've got to almost marvel (or is it weep?) at the degree to which President Bush is set to decide that he and he alone knows best about how to achieve the "certain victory" that is before us in a war that is being "neither won nor lost" (which strikes me a bit like Cubs fans planning trips to the World Series in February). Of course, Bush will claim support from others, presumably all civilian leaders in the Pentagon like Gates. But yes-men need not apply. The President has done a splendid job of surrounding himself with people that have an uncanny ability to tell him exactly what it is that he wants to hear and nothing more ("ref: Gonzales, Alberto").
As Marshall highlights, the canard of Bush basing his decisions of troop levels on military advice has been shattered for good. And Kiel posts the video of Bush claiming something as a "dangerous hypothetical" which has already been leaked as imminently inevitable. I'm curious to see a show of hands by my Republican friends as to who's proud they voted for this clown.
» CNN polling ....
Yeah, I know it's early. Whatever.
McCain v Obama: 47%-43%
Giuliani v Obama: 49%-42%
Romney v Obama: 35%-51%
McCain v Gore: 46%-47%
Giuliani v Gore: 46%-46%
Romney v Gore: 37%-53%
I'm guessing there's more data to be released later? Monday saw the release of Presidential approval data, which summed up, translates into the President and Iraq being less popular than gay marriage in Appallachia. Yeah, I might have made up that last part, but the sad part is, I'm pretty sure it'd hold up if they actually polled it that way.
» Talking points alert ...
It's been a laugh riot watching how certain right-leaning bloggers, first ladies, media opiners and other assorted activists have latched onto the concept that the media is behind all of this negative reporting of Iraq and that not only is what caused the 2006 midterm election vote of no confidence in the President, but it also harms the military.
Kevin Drum notes how Stanley Kurtz engages in a bit of self-parody by blaming the biased media on this count.
Media coverage of Iraq has been biased, and that bias has indeed helped to shape events there for the worse. At the same time, conservative distrust of the media’s very real bias has inclined us to dismiss reports about problems in Iraq that are real.
Laura Bush slams the media for not reporting the good news as much as the bad news.
LAURA BUSH: It is not encouraging coverage for sure. There’s no doubt about it. But I do know that there are a lot of good things that are happening that aren’t covered. And I think that the drum beat in the country from the media, from the only way people know what is happening unless they happened to have a loved one deployed there, is discouraging.O’DONNELL: She says that she hopes that there is “more balanced coverage by the media,” in her words. She also said “I understand why the polls are what they are” she says, “because of the coverage we see every day in Iraq.”
It's considerably less surprising to see Republican bloggers, both locally and nationally, pick up on the tired meme of "the liberal media is out to get us." Of course, those same folks will claim that they're never susceptible to falling for talking points and reciting them as their own independently arrived at notion, either. Sucks when you can't even realize you're being played like a fiddle.
Meanwhile, Rich Lowry sticks to his "liberal media" guns while at least getting Iraq coverage half right ...
Conservatives need to realize that something is not dubious just because it's reported by The New York Times, and that the media ultimately will be wrong about Iraq only if - fully acknowledging how bad it is there - the Bush administration takes bold steps to reverse the tide.
» Eric over at Houstonist finally takes up my suggestion for Christmas YouTube fun. I love Billy Squier's "Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You" all year round, of course. It's Squier in his prime and MTV in an era when some of us were just getting over our letdown that Friday Night Videos had been usurped.
Reminds me, at the Infinite Record Convention last weekend, I saw something that really really spoke to me and I probably would have bought it if I could preview it for quality and one of the artists I was hunting for. The dealer was peddling DVDs of concert footage and other assorted video of your favorite artists. Not sure how the guy makes it with YouTube cutting into his action, but there was another dealer with similar wares who had more foresight to bring a portable DVD player for folks to sample the wares. The DVD in question here was a compilation of musical guests from ABC's Fridays. There's some incredible stuff on there ... early Idol & some prime Cars. The cover listed like 20 artists on the DVD with the tag line "And More!!!" at the end. Well, if I knew for a fact that one of the "more" was Steel Breeze (previously YouBlogged here), I'd have considered that $15-20 well spent for the mere minutes of pleasure in owning such a disc. No luck, though ... and I'm pretty bad about talking myself out of spending money I really don't need to for such reasons.
Anyways, Eric at Houstonist rags me for beating him to the Twisted Sister video. So I'll return the favor and complain about him stealing my thunder with some quality Billy Idol lounge singing of "White Christmas." Check out Houstonist for all your holiday YuleTubing over the Christmas season. Some great stuff making the rounds there.