US Political News Is a Fool’s Game
from Consortium News:
US Political News Is a Fool’s Game
January 5, 2012
U.S. political journalists love to cover the horse race of presidential politics – focused on polls and gaffes – while usually obscuring the nation’s actual problems and how the candidates and their proposals relate to this real world, as Danny Schechter notes.
By Danny Schechter
“Game On” was Rick Santorum’s first comment after his “surge” was considered successful with a mere 30,000 votes in Iowa. He inadvertently gave the game away by calling it a game — which is what it is.
Only this game is not just about politics but about the media. Pseudo-events like this are what the media lives for: it provides something for them to do, and to feel important while doing it. It creates airtime for endless punditry, and a spectacle to liven up a dull Iowa winter.
For Iowans, it’s a chance to “participate” in something that sounds important; for media heads, it’s a routine of the news, a ritual. The media, in effect, provides an infomercial posing as real news.
Yet throughout the weeks of endless around the clock “coverage,” including polling and analyzing TV ads, there’s barely a mention about how the media benefits by creating a phony sense of excitement while generating revenues from the money spent on the endless ads, like the $17 million Texas Gov. Rick Perry invested in his run to nowhere. (How much do you think each vote cost.) .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/05/us-political-news-is-a-fools-game/
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