I, for one, am thoroughly exasperated when I read of “lazy
journalists” and such on dissident Web sites which should know better.
These smug ass-lickers are doing exactly what they’re being paid to
do: present a National Narrative of the Great Booming Prosperity (the
stock market broke records! what’s YOUR problem?), the Outrage du Jour
(Paris Hilton is such a dimwitted slut! Somebody murdered a pregnant
white woman!) while glossing over anything and everything that’s
relevant to what’s really going on in the world.
When I came home from Japan in 1997 I found out what a bubble
surrounds these United States: instead of China’s continued acts of
hostility towards Taiwan, the biggest news here was the TV show
*Seinfeld* having its series finale. Oh, and that Bill Clinton! Such a
horndog! One could write a big fat book (or Web site) about the
day-to-day comparisons between the press’ treatment of Bill Clinton
(we can’t trust him! he speaks like he’s read something on the subject
— ew! — and enjoys sex too much!) versus that of Beloved Boy King
Bunnypants Bush. (“Well, Cokie, people do seem to have problems with
the way his party stole the elections, permitted New Orleans to drown
and starve post-Katrina and how he lied about the war, etc. But that’s
partisan politics for you. History will prove kinder….”)
Every now and then when I want a good case of whiplash to start my day
I’ll tune into BBC News at six a.m. I’ll learn of the politics in
France and Italy, the doings of the European Union, and what’s really
going on Iraq. Then I’ll tune into *Robin & Company* on CNN Headline
News at seven, in which the titular (pun intended) host, complete with
reddish-brown hair and big eyes (we can take them so much more
seriously than blondes, can’t we?) shows footage of her dog frolicking
the lake lapping at the back yard of her Buckhead McMansion or the
needlepoint image of her a devoted old lady viewer sent in. (I swear
to Shiva, I saw these clips.) That is, when she’s not talking about
how “some people” disapprove of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a sneer
curling across her carefully painted lip before going to another set
of commercials and the same footage of burning forests (rich people’s
homes threatened in Tahoe! eek!) we saw ten minutes ago, before
getting to that all-important Entertainment Report, in which we learn
which movie made the most money over the weekend.
In the end I realize it’s really all our fault. We take this absurd,
insulting situation for granted when we should miss no opportunity
whatsoever to throw rocks at these people’s heads.
I, for one, am thoroughly exasperated when I read of “lazy
journalists” and such on dissident Web sites which should know better.
These smug ass-lickers are doing exactly what they’re being paid to
do: present a National Narrative of the Great Booming Prosperity (the
stock market broke records! what’s YOUR problem?), the Outrage du Jour
(Paris Hilton is such a dimwitted slut! Somebody murdered a pregnant
white woman!) while glossing over anything and everything that’s
relevant to what’s really going on in the world.
When I came home from Japan in 1997 I found out what a bubble
surrounds these United States: instead of China’s continued acts of
hostility towards Taiwan, the biggest news here was the TV show
*Seinfeld* having its series finale. Oh, and that Bill Clinton! Such a
horndog! One could write a big fat book (or Web site) about the
day-to-day comparisons between the press’ treatment of Bill Clinton
(we can’t trust him! he speaks like he’s read something on the subject
— ew! — and enjoys sex too much!) versus that of Beloved Boy King
Bunnypants Bush. (“Well, Cokie, people do seem to have problems with
the way his party stole the elections, permitted New Orleans to drown
and starve post-Katrina and how he lied about the war, etc. But that’s
partisan politics for you. History will prove kinder….”)
Every now and then when I want a good case of whiplash to start my day
I’ll tune into BBC News at six a.m. I’ll learn of the politics in
France and Italy, the doings of the European Union, and what’s really
going on Iraq. Then I’ll tune into *Robin & Company* on CNN Headline
News at seven, in which the titular (pun intended) host, complete with
reddish-brown hair and big eyes (we can take them so much more
seriously than blondes, can’t we?) shows footage of her dog frolicking
the lake lapping at the back yard of her Buckhead McMansion or the
needlepoint image of her a devoted old lady viewer sent in. (I swear
to Shiva, I saw these clips.) That is, when she’s not talking about
how “some people” disapprove of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a sneer
curling across her carefully painted lip before going to another set
of commercials and the same footage of burning forests (rich people’s
homes threatened in Tahoe! eek!) we saw ten minutes ago, before
getting to that all-important Entertainment Report, in which we learn
which movie made the most money over the weekend.
In the end I realize it’s really all our fault. We take this absurd,
insulting situation for granted when we should miss no opportunity
whatsoever to throw rocks at these people’s heads.