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| Home Front: Politix | |
| Is the media tiring of its beta-male status? | |
| 2010-01-08 | |
| The national press corps has done a pretty good imitation of a beta male for the past year, saying nothing but "yes, dear" and "anything you say, dear" to President Barack Obama. Until recently, the only White House press corps reporters who have showed any journalistic independence and watchdog intensity have been ABC's Jake Tapper and Fox's Major Garrett. But yesterday, CBS's Chip Reid, whose Wikipedia page says, ironically, that he "assumed the position on Jan. 5," decided he was tired of the unchanging view of the beta male. He aggressively challenged Obama's hapless press secretary Robert Gibbs over Obama's broken promise to let C-SPAN televise the health care logrolling session. This left Gibbs sputtering, his fish-like maw drawn peevishly tight. As one Washington reporter put it on her Twitter page last night: "If Gibbs had a cologne brand, it would be called Cornered Petulance, and it would smell remarkably like Scott McClellan. " The media has been a lagging indicator of Obama's popularity, continuing to worship the golden-tongued man-child even as the vast rabble from coast to coast has soured on the president's TelePrompTer glibness. That may be changing, if even CBS is beginning to see that the emperor is less than fully clothed. Over the years, when the media was confronted with charges of bias against Republicans and conservatives, a common rejoinder was, "We're not biased. We just hate incompetence." Well, it's time to test that. As we have seen since Christmas, there is ample incompetence to go around in Washington these days, not just in the executive branch, but in the legislative, as well. The congressional health care sausage making is the nexus where the incompetence of both branches comes together in one glorious cluster farge.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (no relation to Chip) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are taking the Chicago approach, if you like, by flipping the figurative bird to the American public. All deliberations between the two houses will be behind closed doors. The public will be shut out, just as all Republican have been shut out of the process since the beginning. As Chip Reid showed, if there's one thing even a liberal reporter hates it's being shut out of a meeting that should be public. Will those who cover Congress be as feisty as Reid and hold legislators' feet to the fire? Will they throw off their beta male traits or continue to be happy watching the alpha male's behind for the rest of this first term? | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Hey -- I collect nuts and berries... and root vegetables, too. I'll thank you to remember that in hunter-gatherer societies it's the women's gatherings that keep the family fed. The men's hunting results are used to give a treat to the entire community, thus binding it together. But there would be no community to bind together if the women hadn't done their part. So watch your choice of insults. Beta male does not equal female. Not even close. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-08 22:08 |
| #4 Well MSM Journalists are more like the "women" gathering the nuts and berries, whilst Bloggers are Hunting the meat. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-08 19:17 |
| #3 When you think about it, journalists are inherently beta. They are not the men who are actually doing things but the guys who sit on the sidelines and watch. Just look at the fawning, feeble, submissive way so many of them conduct interviews. They might become aggressive when they are in a pack or if they smell blood. But normally they lie on their backs with their bellies exposed for the big dogs. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-01-08 16:57 |
| #2 Jack Cafferty ripped Obama and the Dems a new one! |
| Posted by: DanNY 2010-01-08 05:38 |
| #1 Ouch! That's gotta smart. |
| Posted by: tipover 2010-01-08 03:16 |