Carpe Datum

The Latest Distraction

From The Sideshow comes a link to Body and Soul, which explains in reality-based terms what's behind the nutball brigade's obsessive focus lately on Eason Jordan. Here's what the man is apparently guilty of:

CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, apparently mentioned in a speech the 12 journalists and media workers who have been killed by coalition forces, and failed to insert the disclaimer that of course the deaths were accidental -- a mistake he later rectified.

Because of this, apparently, he must be terminated with extreme prejudice and maximum public humiliation.

The ConservaBorg are quite skilled at coming up with scandals that are basically meaningless or petty at their core (Whitewater, anyone? Oil for food? Travelgate? etc). They know how to get news coverage of these scandals (by accusing anyone who blows it off of liberal bias), and the lazy corporate media knows it sells papers and sells advertising for hair restoration, penis enlargement, erectile disfunction, etc.

And it's a great plan, because it pushes the equivalence meme, that both sides are equally corrupt, equally bad, equally untrustworthy, etc. And so you get voters who figure that might as well vote for Bush because at least he's the devil they know. Or that it doesn't matter who they vote for because the whole system sucks, etc. Until the editors and producers of newspapers and TV shows figure out what's really important (simple facts about social security, perhaps) and separate it from what the whiny nutballs want to hear (more Clinton blowjobs or Hillary's a lesbian or the UN is corrupt).

I love the UN corruption scandals. I mean, what a surprise, that there's corruption in a giant bureaucracy ... by the way, did I mention the federal government's bureaucracy has grown at a very healthy clip to record size in the past four years? Oh, and now they want to make the big new Homeland Security bureaucracy exempt from the law? Did I mention that one?

Look, I know that philosophically, there are people out there who favor getting the government off our backs, that favor a tax system that doesn't screw people over, that favor supporting and enhancing our military. The problem is that a lot of these people don't realize yet that they are really liberals. Or at least Democrats.

Posted by Observer at February 10, 2005 07:16 AM