Les Media

If there's one thing you understand about the political press, make it be this:

Here are the real rules:

(1) Liberals have the power of reason and justice on their side.

(2) That’s an unfair advantage.

(3) Therefore the game should have handicaps to make it more competitive. One of these handicaps is holding liberals to unfair, unattainable standards. Because...

(4) Politics is just a game with no real world consequences and it wouldn’t be as fun to play if everyone had to simply make up their mind based on the logic and arguments of both sides, since liberals would win pretty much every time.

We’re not racing F1 people, but MarioKart! Conservatives are lagging in the logic department, so of course they get the blue turtle shell. And another war gets started and another few hundred thousand people die needlessly, but hey, better than having a less competitive game, right?

As bizarre as this sounds, after paying attention the media and its detractors for six years straight, I really think this is how pundits and other elite political media figures view politics.

I guess when you are solidly upper-class, the reality of policy changes, which are the result of actual politics, are generally not as apparent to you. The result, of course, is coverage of that which seems inconsequential to the majority (John Edwards' haircut) and the lack of real reporting on things that matter for the vast majority the population (Iraq, funding for social programs). Of course, this coverage reflects the interests and values of the people who are on the television.

That, and as Jason Jones put it on the Daily Show, "do you know how uncomfortable the Reporter-Politician Friendship Breakfast will be if I do that?"

Finally, I should note that I do not think liberals have justice on their side, or least they very rarely do (however, they do exhibit far more reason than anyone who justifies the behavior of the current Attorney General). This point/post isn't meant to prop up liberals, but partly to point out how narrow televised political discourse is in the United States. One of the consequences of having the rules written as such is that not only do very few liberals get on television at all, but anyone to their "left" is considered persona non grata or flat-out crazy (this also reflects the values of the so-called pundit class). So in that sense the "game" really is between establishment liberals and conservatives anyone with a big mouth and batshit idea based on inequality, hate, and/or violence.