From November 5, 2006:
Syl,
You have it exactly right. The Drive-By-Media, Mainstream-Media, Old- Media, whatever you want to call it is like someone who has been poisoned. He’s dead; he just doesn’t realize it yet.
Keep in mind that the people who inhabit this bubble don’t get out much. They inhabit their own world because of where they live and what they read. Unless they read the blogs or listen to talk radio, they don’t inhabit the two worlds that “real” people inhabit: the ones in fly-over-country. And they don’t read blogs and don’t listen to Rush because the blogs are too new and Rush is a “hatemonger” so why listen to him?
You and I see two worlds: the world in our neighborhoods and streets where 90% of America lives and the other world inhabited by the denizens of the media bubble. We know the second world because we read what they write and watch their TV productions. But can you imagine living in their world where there is only one “correct” view?
That’s why reality does not penetrate. They see the loss of circulation and ratings but don’t know how to deal with it. They are the “enlightened” and to adjust their views would be to go over to the dark side. So as their readership and viewer-ship shrinks they become more and more shrill. Like the man in a foreign country who thinks that he can communicate better with the natives by talking louder.
And as if to deliberately prove my point, Frank Rich writes in the NY Times that
WHEN President Bush started making noises about World War III, he only confirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between now and Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocon dead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.
But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news for the world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go to war in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, which the Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. But if we don’t, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear stand on the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday night’s debate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.
The reason so many Democrats believe war with Iran is inevitable, of course, is that the administration is so flagrantly rerunning the sales campaign that gave us Iraq. The same old scare tactic — a Middle East Hitler plotting a nuclear holocaust — has been recycled with a fresh arsenal of hyped, loosey-goosey intelligence and outright falsehoods that are sometimes regurgitated without corroboration by the press.
Mr. Bush has gone so far as to accuse Iran of shipping arms to its Sunni antagonists in the Taliban, a stretch Newsweek finally slapped down last week.
There is an eerie disconnect from reality here. Rich is or was a theater critic and this screed seems to be about a play that totally lacks character or plot development. Where the people are cardboard cutouts and the color of hats denotes their motivations. It is really deranged.
But notice how Rich tries to bring in proof of his thesis that BushCheneyHitlerHalliburton are lying to get us into war with Iran: he cites a Newsweek article.
Newsweek!
My God, this is not only the branch of the drive-bys that brought us the “Koran in the Toilet” fable, and not only does the article not “slap down” the fact that Iran is arming our enemies, but it’s a textbook example of my thesis.
Even if Newsweek said what Rich claims it says, this is the media talking to itself. This is one member of the press interviewing another member of the press with identical prejudices and identical views, telling each other how right they are in their fantasies.
The inhabitants of this echo chamber are, fortunately dying a slow death. And their passing will be a good thing for the Republic.
Faster please
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