Hullabaloo

Monday, March 10, 2008

 
Let's Talk About Prostitutes.

by dday

No, not those. I mean the legal prostitution ring that is our national press corps. Three stories from that ring caught my eye today.

First you have this homemade video from the now-legendary John W. McCain barbecue at his Sedona ranch, where you can literally see how cheap the transaction of perks and access for favorable coverage truly is.



Really, a spread of ribs and tamales is enough to guarantee a press corps in the tank for an entire election campaign. That's really all it takes. These guys won't be working at the Emperor's Club anytime soon.

You can see precisely how this transaction plays out by listening to Ana Marie Cox openly discuss the complete abrogation of any journalistic responsibility when it comes to McSame:

KURTZ: You’ve spent a lot of time with McCain. He spends hours and hours answering reporters’ questions…. Is there a downside to his policy of nearly unlimited media access?

COX: Well, you just saw it. It’s true that he can — especially — it’s almost always someone who has not — who hasn’t been with the campaign, you know, through it all that’s going to make a call that makes him look bad. […]

KURTZ: But that suggests that the people who have been traveling with him regularly… become part of the bubble, part of the team?

COX: Become part of the bubble, and also, I mean, I think what happens is that you — if you’ve been covering him for a long time, there’s a sense that, well, he does that all the time, it’s not worth reporting, because he does — he’s a cranky old man. I mean, to be quite frank.

You know, like, and also, I’ve gotten much tougher terseness than Bumiller got just there. And…

KURTZ: But the cameras weren’t rolling.

COX: But the cameras weren’t rolling. And also, we wrote it off to, like, you know, he hadn’t had his fifth cup of Starbucks today.

In other words, as long as a politician talks to you and gives you a lot of soundbites you can use to fluff up your pieces, you can just let slide little things like flip-flopping on the subject of torture. and pretending to be committed to American principles of ethics and morality while supporting a veto of the same principles.

But maybe the most egregious example of media whoredom came over the weekend. The President, as I mentioned, just vetoed banning waterboarding, maybe the clearest sign that American democracy has become a joke and a dictator has been installed under our noses. The damage to our nation, our moral standing, our ability to act globally, is unquestionable, and the entire press corps knows this. But they won't let it get in the way of their good time.

President Bush said an early farewell to political Washington on Saturday night, making his first appearance on the stage of the Gridiron Club of Washington journalists.

Bush surprised the white-tie audience of more than 600, including Supreme Court justices, Cabinet members and lawmakers, by appearing as the final act of the club's annual revue. To the tune of "Green Green Grass of Home," he sang about looking forward to his return to Texas.

Bush has spoken at the Gridiron Club dinner before, but this was the first time he sang, donning a cowboy hat and joining the chorus to say farewell. He appeared at the behest of Gridiron president Carl Leubsdorf, Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.

Founded in 1885, the invitation-only Gridiron Club is the oldest organization for Washington journalists. . . .

The audience was surprised by Bush's appearance and rose to applaud his attempt at singing.

The difference between the girls working at the Emperor's Club and the Washington press corps is that the Emperor's Club girls know exactly what kind of transaction they're making. That, plus the fact that the result of a prostitute's transaction has no victim, and the result of the press corps' has thousands upon thousands.

I know who I think is in the nobler profession.


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dday 3/10/2008 09:29:00 PM |