We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia
“I noticed today that the elections are on schedule for June the 30th. What we're doing is the right thing in Iraq, and history will prove it right.” - George W B*sh, last week.
Seriously people, you gotta pay more attention to what he’s saying. The elections are scheduled for JANUARY 30TH. First comes a slip of the tongue from Dubya, then Cheney will do it a couple times, and by Christmas the entire administration will be using both months interchangeably in the same breath. By February, when someone finally takes notice, the press release will be issued: “The elections in Iraq are scheduled for June 30th. The have ALWAYS been scheduled for June 30th. The accusation that the date has been changed is totally false.” And the news media will never call them on it because they’ve learned to pick their battles - which they somehow always seem to lose anyway.
Why does the media pick their battles? Well, the election proved that people aren’t willing to listen to a deluge of facts coming from every direction. People want happy lies, not terrifying facts. Lies make sense, they all fit together like a nice little puzzle, at least they do if you squint enough – (too bad we don’t have universal healthcare, maybe we could afford to see what’s right in front of us), and the truth will give you a headache every time. We want reassuring thoughts about the world, and just one scandal at a time that we can talk about at the water-cooler for months on end – preferably sex-related or having to do with a dead rich person or both. We turn the media into Aesop’s dog at the riverbank, trying to do too much and reaching for what may exist rather than making due with the ample resources already at their disposal. They get a nice juicy 9/11 commission report in their mouth and they look down into the water and in their reflection they see another media-dog with another scandal in his jaws – “maybe HE’S got an Abu Ghraib report, I want that too.” And naturally they let the one go to reach for the other and lose both, what do they end up with? Thirty-second news reports that raise more questions than they answer. Not like what Our Elected Officials are telling us. They say everything’s OK, and the stuff that isn’t, soon will be. And all we remember from the evening’s news is the score from the Packers game and an interview with Ronald Reagan’s housekeeper’s nephew.
And naturally then comes the biggest question in journalism; fairness. The media fear to go after the administration too much, lest they be accused of ‘bias.’ Fantastic. You know, I saw a cop chasing a mugger down the street last week and the mugger turned to the cop and said “You’re spending too much time on me when there are so many other aspects of your job that you’re neglecting.” And then the cop apologized, wrote a jaywalking ticket to a nearby elderly woman, and then did a nine-minute feature about the holiday shopping season. OK, now I’M confused, which means this post is probably a few sentences too long. Like about 30.
Seriously people, you gotta pay more attention to what he’s saying. The elections are scheduled for JANUARY 30TH. First comes a slip of the tongue from Dubya, then Cheney will do it a couple times, and by Christmas the entire administration will be using both months interchangeably in the same breath. By February, when someone finally takes notice, the press release will be issued: “The elections in Iraq are scheduled for June 30th. The have ALWAYS been scheduled for June 30th. The accusation that the date has been changed is totally false.” And the news media will never call them on it because they’ve learned to pick their battles - which they somehow always seem to lose anyway.
Why does the media pick their battles? Well, the election proved that people aren’t willing to listen to a deluge of facts coming from every direction. People want happy lies, not terrifying facts. Lies make sense, they all fit together like a nice little puzzle, at least they do if you squint enough – (too bad we don’t have universal healthcare, maybe we could afford to see what’s right in front of us), and the truth will give you a headache every time. We want reassuring thoughts about the world, and just one scandal at a time that we can talk about at the water-cooler for months on end – preferably sex-related or having to do with a dead rich person or both. We turn the media into Aesop’s dog at the riverbank, trying to do too much and reaching for what may exist rather than making due with the ample resources already at their disposal. They get a nice juicy 9/11 commission report in their mouth and they look down into the water and in their reflection they see another media-dog with another scandal in his jaws – “maybe HE’S got an Abu Ghraib report, I want that too.” And naturally they let the one go to reach for the other and lose both, what do they end up with? Thirty-second news reports that raise more questions than they answer. Not like what Our Elected Officials are telling us. They say everything’s OK, and the stuff that isn’t, soon will be. And all we remember from the evening’s news is the score from the Packers game and an interview with Ronald Reagan’s housekeeper’s nephew.
And naturally then comes the biggest question in journalism; fairness. The media fear to go after the administration too much, lest they be accused of ‘bias.’ Fantastic. You know, I saw a cop chasing a mugger down the street last week and the mugger turned to the cop and said “You’re spending too much time on me when there are so many other aspects of your job that you’re neglecting.” And then the cop apologized, wrote a jaywalking ticket to a nearby elderly woman, and then did a nine-minute feature about the holiday shopping season. OK, now I’M confused, which means this post is probably a few sentences too long. Like about 30.
posted by ab at 11/30/2004
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