Spoonfed spin sickens me
Many times, I’m reminded just how useless the media are. They spin; they do not report. CNN is biased; Fox News is biased. And that’s bad enough, as long as it’s interesting spin. Where I really get pissed off is when they spoonfeed.
I watched the entire presidential debate tonight with my own two eyes. I listened with my own two ears. The entire goddamn point of a debate is to speak to ME, the voter, directly. A debate, they tell me, is my chance to truly see the ideas of one candidate matched with the other’s. They can call each other out; they can confront each other. The debate, as a entity, is for me.
I therefore find the entire concept of “spinning” a debate repulsive. I find it repulsive in the post-debate TV coverage, and I find it repulsive on blogs and in print. Who gives a shit what some “expert” says about the outcome? These people care more about the color of the candidates’ ties than what they’re actually saying. They’re as useless as movie critics and music critics; they just don’t understand what plays in Peoria. Mired in the mess of politics, the pundits have simply lost touch with what it means to be a real person.
And thus, I come to my conclusion: George W. Bush won the first debate. He was more decisive, he was more convincing, and he was more down-to-earth. I certainly don’t need to hear on al-Reuters about seven person (!) focus groups (that’s a laugher). I just need to watch. So I do—on C-SPAN, so I’m spared the bullshit—and I ignore the pathetic spectacle of the media.