Jon Stewart

Yes, Sarah Palin is still playing big in mainstream media headlines. But watch out, girl! There's a new hottie basking in the sunguns.

Christine O'Donnell.

Thank goodness for Jon Stewart!

My question is this: If Christine O'Donnell were not young and throwing out the cutes, would we be hearing so much about her?

Here we are in 2010, facing the same old crap coverage from the mainstream media. They obsess about certain candidates and then justify it by all the coverage being given. Hype-filled stenography. Blah.

Washington Post pontificator Richard Morin offers what I think is one of the most absurd theories I've seen yet coming from the mainstream media mind:

Two political scientists found that young people who watch Stewart's faux news program, "The Daily Show," develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting.

That's particularly dismaying news because the show is hugely popular among college students, many of whom already don't bother to cast ballots.

Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris of East Carolina University said previous research found that nearly half -- 48 percent -- of this age group watched "The Daily Show" and only 23 percent of show viewers followed "hard news" programs closely.
Assumption #1: "hard news" programs actually contain "hard news" -- which is questionable for anyone who is willing to actually question whether the mainstream media emperor has any clothes.

Stewart has made his name poking fun of mainstream media, including the so-called "hard news" shows, and gained a big boost in 2004 when he said, literally, "I won't be your monkey!" to the CNN Crossfire twits.

But get a load of this logic that Morin seems to buy:

"Ultimately, negative perceptions of candidates could have participation implications by keeping more youth from the polls," they wrote.
This is Bush-league logic, right along with notions that the real problem with Iraq is that the reporting is negative, not that the bad news is in fact really happening. Now that is what I would call cynicism!

I don't think I'm being cynical when I say that, just because many of our politicians are revealed to be, well, lunatics doesn't mean that hiding the fact will somehow improve democracy.

Besides, maybe cynicism isn't so bad. Ask Ambrose Bierce, who defines "cynic" as:

A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.*dons shatter-proof goggles*

Morin does report, however, a study that cuts right to the unacknowledged racism that exists in the so-called progressive population:

Democrats and independents were far more generous; on average, they gave Katrina victims on average more than $1,500 a month, compared with $1,200 for Republicans, and for 13 months instead of nine.

But for Democrats, race mattered -- and in a disturbing way. Overall, Democrats were willing to give whites about $1,500 more than they chose to give to a black or other minority. (Even with this race penalty, Democrats still were willing to give more to blacks than those principled Republicans.) "Republicans are likely to be more stringent, both in terms of money and time, Iyengar said. "However, their position is 'principled' in the sense that it stems from a strong belief in individualism (as opposed to handouts). Thus their responses to the assistance questions are relatively invariant across the different media conditions. Independents and Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to be affected by racial cues."
One can rest assured that the "hard news" programs are not going to report on this. However, I could very easily see Jon Stewart poking some fun at this.

Bad for democracy? I suppose it depends upon your perspective.

I think anyone who blogs regularly, but not for a living, struggles with many conflicting forces. Should I write this? I really need to go do this other thing. Oh, look, traffic is up, I should get something fresh up there. Fuck! Look at this stupid thing! I need to blog about that! Oh, no. He didn't do that! Listen to these asshats! I have something to day about that! Arrrgggg! Okay, just one more post. This one doesn't count, it's so short. What's that? Jon Stewart is on already?

Agi T. Prop is leaving his blog. His sentiments I think many of us can understand.

For a while (maybe a month or two) I’ve been considering ditching this blog. It’s taking up way too much of my time—time I should be spending with my wife, playing guitar, writing music, reading books, learning new things, exploring the physical world, exercising, living, etc. There’s so much I want and need to do in my life, and I feel that this blog is somehow preventing me from achieving those goals. When I started this blog a year ago, it was just for fun. But then I got a regular audience and I felt the pressure of daily posting.

When I started the media girl site on Blogspot, it was all a lark. I'd dropped all previous websites and blogs. Nobody knew me. I had no traffic. And I was free. It didn't matter what I wrote, because nobody read it. I didn't even think about traffic. All these big shots knew each other. I was totally beneath their notice -- everyone's notice.

Now I feel that same kind of pressure Agi did -- not that we here have any kind of significant traffic -- compared to the various progressive and feminist blogs out there, what we see here is just a blip -- which makes you, dearest reader, quite exceptional (that's a good thing, isn't it?) -- but I do feel a little bit like a hamster on a squeaky wheel, racing in place in my cage here. Going nowhere, but with full intention. Many people would love to have the traffic we enjoy here, and don't think I don't know it. In fact, I love that my words are being read. But now I feel like I must continue to feed the beast, or it will die.

Agi writes:

It’s time for me to move on to new pursuits. I’ve grown rather cynical about our political situation these days and it’s become a tiresome exercise documenting the daily crimes of the Bush junta. Therefore, I have decided to downgrade this hobby back into the closet where it belongs.

I don't think I've reached that place yet. But sometimes I feel like I'm in a Beckett novel. I can't go on. I'll go on.

And so here I am, tonight, heartened by the encouragement of some dear online friends. I'll go to sleep tonight and dream beautiful dreams and wake up to a lovely day ... and I'll get online and read the latest idiocy or learn of the latest outrage or see the latest catastrophe. And I'll feel that tug in my tummy that is the loss of any sense of well-being I had. And I'll fight back on the keys here.

I'm sure it'd be much healthier for me if I didn't fight so much. But this is a political blog. Whatever it was when it started, that's what it became very quickly. And all too often it seems there's nothing to do but fight. If only I were good at jokes.

Agi is gone. Me, I'll probably be back here tomorrow. If not then, the next day.