It seems to me that if the practitioners of campaign journalism can’t figure out a way to make it so that lying is punished, rather than amplified and rewarded, by the press then they ought to pack up their bags and go do something else.
From Matthew Yglesias. Via Jay Rosen’s Twitter feed, which I recommend for running meta-commentary on this bizarre unfolding Spectacle of the Society that our campaign has degenerated into.
I wouldn’t have said “punished”; it plays too much into the S&M imagery that Palin’s candidacy toys with. I’d have said that lying should be named, and shouted about, and hung around the neck of the candidate who is shameless about doing it.
I mean, this is a campaign that lies about the findings of Factcheck.org!
I think we’re gonna have to bottom out before things will get any better. Hoping that the ABC Palin-comium on Friday will mark the nadir, and then we can begin to gain some traction on reality again. If not, it’s going to be a rough season.
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Television “journalists” are fashion models – chosen on their physical appearance. It has been that way for 20 or 30 years now. Newspapers do just a little better than TV. They all exist on the advertising dollars that political campaigns shower them with every two years.
I don’t like it either.