The Mandarin Class

Sure, we may see them as nutty know-nothings who got an English degree or went to J-school because they flunked high school math, but they see themselves the unelected leaders of the nation, the Mandarin Class.  And why not, thousands of people read their daily jottings and people actually ask their opinions.

If you sometimes wonder why Rush Limbaugh has changed his mantra from the “drive-by media” (lazy, disinterested character assassins who can’t be bothered to get blood on their hands) to the “state-controlled media” (slavish lickspittle apparatchiks bucking for career advancement), you need look no further than this news announcement, courtesy of Politico’s Ben Smith:

Another jump from the media to politics: ABC News’s deputy political director, Teddy Davis, emails that he’s leaving the network to join SEIU’s already-muscular communications and politics operation.

Years ago another government/journalist stooge, Walter Lippman wrote:

My conclusion is that public opinions must be organized for the press if they are to be sound, not by the press as is the case today.

And that, in a nutshell, is how many of today’s elite journalists still think of their jobs. They’re a mandarin class, a collection of high priests who circle the thrones of power and interpret the words and deeds of the sovereign for the benefit of the masses. (Unless, of course, the king is a tyrant and a usurper, in which case they work overtime for his speedy removal.)

Lippman wrote at a time when many Progressives were supporters of one or another of the European fascists and communists who could do what today's pundits like Tom Friedman would like to see: a government that can act without regard to the will of the people; in Friedman's case a wish that we could have the Chinese style of government.  That is why those of us in the new media are watching the slow death of the old media (the MFM) with great satisfaction.