Have reached a point where I cannot watch what Atrios calls the Sunday Bobbleheads. It’s always unnerving to watch people eager to prove how smart they are not listen to each other. But the Sunday morning crowd is special. They see themselves as the lofty pantheon of those engaged in the most noble pursuit of media. Their respectful smugness is there to draw us all to their circle in the cocktail party of punditry and political wisdom. To me, it is not lofty at all but one of the deeper rings of hell. They remind me of how insulated the ruling class is. They live a world where facts are not important, only impression and rhetoric. Their universe revolves around acceptance of their viewpoint—be it false or not.
This point was drilled home Sunday when I walked into room with High Definition Television and saw one of the Sunday shows’ roundtable sections. (That’s the part of the show where to add a variety of viewpoints an extra set of comfortable, well dressed, conservative white males are brought in to season the pot.) Note that one of the quirks about high definition television is that shows that are not in high definition can look quite different. One thing I’ve noticed in particular is that in the case of television news—either local or national—you can really see the makeup.
So I’m sitting there watching several comfortable, well-dressed, conservative pontificators slathered in pancake discussing (already) the horse-race aspects of the next election of the Leader-Of-The-Free-World while the current Leader-Of-The-Free-World dithers over what to do what to do. Too real, too early in the morning. Time may have made You Person of the Year, but the media is still letting You down. They’d rather chatter about Obamamania or play Fantasy Presidential Race than lift one finger to put the heat on the administration to get moving on getting us out of Iraq.
