Complicated Media Mass

The U.S. news media is currently very tumultuous. So much so, it appears they are choosing out of many options what calamity to cover. Lately prime time news and cable news networks have been dominated by a couple of re-occurring themes.

Terrorist threats and the decision making process that occur on whether to reveal them to the public. Three recent threats can be cited, the first in Massachusetts was downplayed, with a mere increase in frequency of warnings administered to public transportation. The second, NY resulted in an extraordinary amount of attention. A scandal ultimately developed questioning Mayor Bloomberg’s choice to reveal the information, even though the source may have been illegitimate. Now it appears that the information was perhaps only revealed after family members of certain law and transportation officials found out about the threats through leaks, which have since been traced to the perpetrators, in most cases electronically. The last is the current Baltimore tunnel threat.

Secondly the Supreme Court Justice decisions are taking up an enormous amount of time. John Roberts retrospectively seems to have been an apt appointment by Bush for Supreme Court Justice. However his recent nomination of long time advisor and lawyer Harriet Miers appears to be a major political blunder. I believe that Bush is entitled to nominate who ever he pleases. I think it should be his unwritten responsibility to find the person who is the most qualified for the position, but as anyone knows, that isn’t the way the world works. On the other hand, I believe historians, and political science experts will agree that the purpose of congressional approval of these candidates should merely be a simple background check & capability check. Unfortunately with media pressure, pressure to please constituents, etc., our representatives treat it as a political appointment, rather than someone who is supposed to interpret and uphold our constitution. This being known, I also believe, in light of all of the important things our legislative branch needs to be accomplishing, that it was poor choice of action by Bush. He knows it will tie up the government. As her positions needed to be really searched out, the right was disgruntled. Now that they are being found to be loyal to the right, the left will be upset. One can’t even look at this as one of those appointments made by Bush to reveal the obstructionist nature of the left, because at least initially it inspired both parties to behave in this manner. Miers in all likelihood will not be approved, never a judge, and apparently staunchly pro-life. While the majority of the U.S. may be pro-life (I’m not included) I believe our representatives are likely skewed towards the pro-choice beliefs. Unless Miers is as eloquent at explaining how she will judge by “precedent” (Roe vs. Wade), and is someone who can really go a long way to impress (Most people have probably already made up their minds irregardless of her performance in front of the committee); I feel she’s doomed to fail.

Third: Disaster Disaster Disaster! Inadequate FEMA organization, the shifting of blame from local, to state, to federal over Katrina. Government waste in FEMA. Bush launching on an ambitious campaign to prepare for the speculative prognosis of the Avian Flu. People criticizing this (damned if you do, damned if you don’t). The debate over Avian Flu, is it less likely or more likely to be a problem? Are most of the fears simply sensationalism? (Scientists overwhelmingly agree we are due for a severe flu pandemic, I personally believe preparedness is important, and that we’ll still get taken by surprise). Of course now we have Hurricane Wilma, as well as the prospect of other future hurricanes, making it possibly the busiest season on record. There are mudslides in California, flooding in New England.

Additionally Saddam is going on trial right now; reporters are enjoying the opportunity to revisit stories of his crimes against humanity. People are debating whether Iraq is going to be soft on him. There are also the daily information/reports on the Iraq stabilization efforts, civil war which appears to be breaking out, Al Qaeda’s shift of terrorist training camps from Afghanistan to Iraq. There is the debate of whether Syria is doing enough to help secure their boarder. Is Iran doing enough to show UN inspectors around? (God I hope so). Is aid getting to Pakistan and India following the Earthquake? To build or not build new refineries and will it help oil costs? There is hypocrisy of the administration to suddenly claim that fossil fuel conservation has always been in their interests… it goes on and on. Oh yeah…Bush’s ratings are down to 39% approval according to gallup/cnn. Most of you know, I’ve developed quite an anti-bush bent over the past couple years… but really, I can’t argue with a straight face that his approval rating is purely because of bad policy. There have been many events that have happened and would have happened to whatever administration could have been in office. Anyone would likely be suffering through this.

We also can’t forget all of the time our media wastes on keeping track of who Lindsay Lohan crashed into most recently, Tom Cruise’s manic behavior, Brangelina, and who Paris Hilton pleasured last.

Following these are various news items that seem to get pushed aside or somewhat forgotten. One of which was mentioned by my friend Jens. I’m guessing that perhaps editorialists are making a bit more of this than they are over here. The Plame affair.

For those of you unfamiliar, this is the leak of a CIA agent’s (Valerie Plame) identity by someone in the Bush Administration to Judith Miller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_(journalist)
Plame’s husband Joseph Wilson was an ambassador who publicly criticized the administration on there repeated insistence of the presence of WMD in Iraq.

Ultimately, although I would have to research further, I believe the lack of sensationalism here is due to a couple things. People have plenty to be mad about, and there are way too many vagaries about this case. It is much like Clinton’s whitewater scandal, although at least with that there was a paper trail that led directly to Hillary. With this the trail leads to Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, who by the way was thrown in jail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._Lewis_Libby

The administration has made no effort to stand by Libby, and from the outset has repeatedly said, who ever was involved will be held accountable. They have even had Karl Rove, who was formerly a leak suspect (due to some questionable character traits) on the stand answering questions.

I think it’s probably safe to say that at least W didn’t know of any shady leaks to reveal this CIA operative’s identity. I think he’s probably someone who enjoys blissful ignorance so he can be appalled when things aren’t as rosy as they might seem. Cheney, well… his chief of staff was key to this fiasco, so it’s likely he was in on it too. But as Cheney is smart as a whip he isn’t going to pull a Nixon and tape his conversations.

Basically much like Clinton’s Filegate, people immediately involved are being held responsible. Pretty much no-one will be shocked if Rove goes down as well, I have a feeling the evidence tying him in will be inconclusive. Rove has been known to have secret service throw grieving women out of “Support our troops” rallies because they sport pro-choice stickers on their cars. The type of controlling behavior he’s being accused of is exactly his style.

As I think W’s hands, at least are probably clean and that he’s calling for accountability, it was a political move on his part that protected him. In other words, this is nowhere near a scandal of “Whitewater” proportions because no one is standing behind the masterminds that dreamed it up.

I’m pretty sure W is there for another 3 years. While I’m never surprised by shady dealings in his administration, I would be surprised by direct links to him. For the most part he is a puppet, just delusional enough to believe he has a semblance of control.

Clinton’s presidency was riddled with scandal; Bush’s presidency is filled with abuse of power. The clever thing about this administration is, for the most part, the crooked things that they do, are a twisted interpretation of what is legal. Clinton’s administration was filled with people stealing information on republicans, illegal fundraising, improper use of funds for luxurious staffer vacations (travelgate), and in all of these instances, laws were broken. Clinton used certain executive privileges to slow the retrieval of information. Bush hasn’t had to do this because all of their incestuous relations with various industry, crooked CEOs, and their media control efforts… have for the most part been by the book.

Anyway… That’s quite a bit of stuff right there!

If you got this far, I’m really impressed.