Clinton and Palin: The circus is back on cable TV news
Christmas came early for cable TV news with the official nomination of Senator Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and the return of Sarah Palin to the lower 48 to campaign for Saxby Chambliss in Georgia.
The Clinton story is the one that matters, because 24/7 cable TV news can’t seem to help but cover the Clintons as a soap opera. And given the powerful emotions – both negative and positive – that the Clintons somehow always seem to generate in coverage, you can only hope this approach and tone doesn’t spill over to or obscure what has so far largely been substantive coverage of the presidential transition.
But yesterday, for all the hugely important and complex news President-elect Barack Obama made at a news conference in which he announced his national security team, cable TV news was mostly Hillary, Hillary, Bill and Hillary, with a little bit of Sarah in Georgia all night long.
Every time, I looked up at the TV, there was a new cable TV headline with Clinton in the title. “What about Clinton factor?” the banner on MSNBC said. “What’s the Clinton agenda?” another asked on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes show. And on Fox, “agenda” is not a good word when it is used in the same sentence as “Clinton.” Greta Van Susteren all but rubbed her hands together in glee as she talked about former President Bill Clinton agreeing to release the “vast” list of names of people who have donated to his foundation.
Don’t get me wrong, there is room for debate here as to whether cable TV just goes tabloid crazy at the mention of the Clintons for its own ratings-crazed reasons, or the couple really is a walking soap opera. After all, it wasn’t Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews or Shepard Smith who had a sexual relationship with an intern in the White House.
Actually, as I write about that sordid episode, I am thinking soap opera doesn’t do justice to the energy with which the Hillary Clinton nomination was covered last night. In terms of the passion with which the narratives of her personal and professional lives were discussed, the tone was closer to a telenovela. But, again, the coverage was predominantly about personality (Hillary and Bill Clinton’s) and conflict (things she and Obama said about each other and how they made nice yesterday) rather than policy and the daunting challenges she now faces.
And you can only hope, the more responsible executives and producers in cable TV news will try and rein in their newsrooms' worst impulses as they move forward through the confirmation process.
As for Palin, forget about it. CNN’s headline for the story during Campbell Brown’s show was simply, “She’s back.” And it was hard to argue with mockery implied in those two words.
It is hard to not cover Palin as a bit of a cartoon character. But the press has to try to do so. It must also never forget that as comical as Palin might now seem, how willing she was to take presidential politics to a dark and dirty place of innuendo and smear that even her own presidential candidate, John McCain, ultimately felt the need to denounce.
(Above: Associated Press photo of President-elect Barack Obama with members of his new national security team, Sen. Hillary Clinton and retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones, by Pablo Martinez Monsivais.)
Comments
ZZZ-as in, "Boring."
Won't you left-wing elitists get off this woman's back? Why don't you go after 'Bama about Eric Holder and his involvement in the pardoning of Mark Rich? Now that is real "Headline News" as the love of your life (A.K.A., CNN) would put it.
Posted by: Clinton | December 2, 2008 2:43 PM
Get off Palin's back? LOL! I think that it's a laugh riot that ignorant redneck Repubs love this vacuous joke-of-a-governor so much that they continue to run to her defense even after she has proved time and again what a true moron she really is! The thing is, as long as she keeps trying to get media attention we are going to keep on taunting her. Get used to it. If you conservatives want to win the next election then you need to ditch this proven LOSER and drum up a candidate that we Libs can at least respect! I mean, come on!!!...she's a total joke! The woman governs a state that has a smaller population by half than the greater Denver metroplex! Albuquerque, NM has more people in it than Alaska, for criminy sake! This woman was elected as Alaska's Governor by people who eat roadkill and drink Coors Lite for breakfast...OF COURSE we feel "elitist" by comparison. LOL!
...!!!
Posted by: TheDude | December 2, 2008 9:57 PM
Hi Z,
A friend of mine has a theory about Hilary Clinton's downfall in the Democratic Primary-It's because the media got involved. They were, to paraphrase yourself, playing her life out like a soap opera, exploiting her weaknesses and making her out to be the demanding, shrewd, and powerful woman you see in many daytime serial dramas.
Personally, I think she is a bright woman who should've gotten the nod, had the media wasn't so horny about Obama. She's a strong woman who should get the Secretary of State position. She even stood by Bill when the public found out he got ... from Monica Lewinsky. She's obviously not the evil queen the press makes her out to be.
Oh and by the way, I don't know why people keep making fun of Sarah Palin, cause she already makes fun of herself.
Agent Cooper? Hmmmmmm. Name sounds vaguely familiar....Thanks, Agent C. Z
Posted by: Agent Dale Cooper-FBI | December 2, 2008 10:14 PM
Greta I,m not sorry but Hi IQ is showing. People are not born that way. It is the company the keep.
Posted by: Herbert H. Browning | December 4, 2008 12:57 PM