Chronicle, Meet Chronicle
On the front page of yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, an article headlined "Insatiable news sites feed us political trivia":MSNBC host Martin Bashir led his program the other day with a lengthy discussion of a scandal the left-leaning cable network ominously called "Cookie-gate."On April 13, this story made the Chronicle front page:
It stemmed from a campaign photo-op discussion GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney had with suburban Pittsburgh voters in which he mocked the cookies they were served as looking like "they came from 7-Eleven." They had been donated by a popular local bakery, and over the next several minutes the cable TV channel spun the story as an example of how Romney has trouble connecting with voters.
"Cookie-gate" was the latest in a series of near-daily items that have dominated the presidential campaign recently. Somehow rocker and outdoors enthusiast Ted Nugent, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, Romney's dog Seamus and President Obama's long-ago description of eating dog as a child have taken turns dominating the national conversation.
The role of women in this year's presidential election stayed on center stage Thursday after a Democratic consultant's comments triggered a new round of "mommy wars" - pitting mothers who are employed against those who stay at home.Different authors, of course: the first story is by Joe Garofali, generally one of the better political reporters; the second is by Carla Marinucci, notorious for repeatedly writing stories about Susie Tompkins Buell's disappointment with the President. Same newspaper, though.
Note to The Chronicle: tut-tutting about the trivialization of politics is a lot more credible when you don't peddle the trivial shit yourself.
Susie Tompkins Belle is no more relevant to politics today, be it in the Bay Area or elsewhere, than Emperor Norton or Joe Alioto.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on - surely by now you know that stories that look bad for Republicans are the only stories that are trivial and not worth reporting. Obama's bowling score, or the fact that he once misspoke that there were 57 states, on the other hand, uncover critical issues and ask critical questions such as "Are Democrats really even Americans at all?"
ReplyDelete@Dark Avenger: I think it's fair to say any relevance she once had ended when Hillary Clinton conceded the 2008 primary race. If not earlier.
ReplyDelete@RickM: indeed.
Outside of fashion, where she made her fortune, Susie T Belle has never had anything relevant to say about anything else, IMHO.
ReplyDelete@Dark Avenger: agree with you as a substantive matter. She was relevant, though, only in the sense that money = relevance.
ReplyDelete