February 22, 2006
FROM DOWD TO HANNITY
I HAD A DREAM
From the elite of the quill profession to the sometimes cartoonish talking heads of T.V., as in from Dowd to Hannity, the media of America do scant little to educate the public.
Collectively they behave as if they were youth taking alternating peeps through a hole in the wall of the boys and/or girls gym locker room. Espying a calf or a buttock they clamor and jostle to press their eye to the peephole and set off en masse to repeat gossipy chatter as news. This game, which is passed off as a profession, is today so ingrained that there is little reasoned analysis and the public neither wants nor expects any.
A case in point:
Thanks primarily to Jack Murtha's epically effective expose of the facts, Bush's positive ratings on his Iraq policy plummeted to the low 40's. This number was so low that the White House crew was forced to admit that no amount of dangling '9/11', terrorism, 'patriotism' and 'Stay the Course' in front of the peephole was going to bring back acceptable poll numbers.
The crew began to tell the truth. Murtha had poll-wise boxed in the White House and they began a strategy of selective honesty. (Yes, the intelligence was faulty. Yes, we made some mistakes. Yes, they see us as 'Occupiers'.)
I found the crew's new strategy to be hilarious. Imagine Mr. Brain telling W that the new strategy was to tell the truth on a few key points and to convey humility. I imagined W screaming "Are you nuts? Tell the truth? Not on my watch." and Karl saying, " It's not that big of a deal. Remember, they've only got that little peephole. They'll miss most of it."
A bigger case in point:
What I heard from George Bush, Karl Rove and the neocons at the State of the Union was a dead serious speech of great import and huge consequences. When President George W. Bush announced that we could no longer rely on unstable Middle East oil he was announcing the failure of his war in Iraq. When he announced that the U.S. needs to prodigiously expedite alternate energy sources and conservation he announced that we will not be striving for a large military footprint in the Persian oil patch. He announced that we are going to come home, again, from a foreign military adventure with little to commend us for the effort. If he bridles at second guessing and hindsight, given the advice he was given, who can blame him?
G.W. gave a speech all right. It was entitled "I Had A Dream."
I had a dream that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators.
I had a dream that the expatriates and exiles we championed would dominate Iraq for the foreseeable future.
I had a dream that we could have permanent bases in Iraq.
I had a dream that America could triple its secure hydrocarbon reserves by politically annexing Iraq.
Postscript: The media seemed to enjoy President Bush's use of the word 'addicted.'
America is addicted to oil, he said. "Well, that sounds just like America is drunk on oil," was the wisdom from the peephole and America needs a Gasaholics Anonymous meeting chortles the media.
Pardon me, but I don't think that Karl Rove, even on his best day, would have considered it possible for the media to whoop it up over the word, addicted, when the White House oil crew had just done the unthinkable and bear hugged every liberal's energy policy.
Vote for the GOP, the clean energy Party.
I Had A Dream.
From the elite of the quill profession to the sometimes cartoonish talking heads of T.V., as in from Dowd to Hannity, the media of America do scant little to educate the public.
Collectively they behave as if they were youth taking alternating peeps through a hole in the wall of the boys and/or girls gym locker room. Espying a calf or a buttock they clamor and jostle to press their eye to the peephole and set off en masse to repeat gossipy chatter as news. This game, which is passed off as a profession, is today so ingrained that there is little reasoned analysis and the public neither wants nor expects any.
A case in point:
Thanks primarily to Jack Murtha's epically effective expose of the facts, Bush's positive ratings on his Iraq policy plummeted to the low 40's. This number was so low that the White House crew was forced to admit that no amount of dangling '9/11', terrorism, 'patriotism' and 'Stay the Course' in front of the peephole was going to bring back acceptable poll numbers.
The crew began to tell the truth. Murtha had poll-wise boxed in the White House and they began a strategy of selective honesty. (Yes, the intelligence was faulty. Yes, we made some mistakes. Yes, they see us as 'Occupiers'.)
I found the crew's new strategy to be hilarious. Imagine Mr. Brain telling W that the new strategy was to tell the truth on a few key points and to convey humility. I imagined W screaming "Are you nuts? Tell the truth? Not on my watch." and Karl saying, " It's not that big of a deal. Remember, they've only got that little peephole. They'll miss most of it."
A bigger case in point:
What I heard from George Bush, Karl Rove and the neocons at the State of the Union was a dead serious speech of great import and huge consequences. When President George W. Bush announced that we could no longer rely on unstable Middle East oil he was announcing the failure of his war in Iraq. When he announced that the U.S. needs to prodigiously expedite alternate energy sources and conservation he announced that we will not be striving for a large military footprint in the Persian oil patch. He announced that we are going to come home, again, from a foreign military adventure with little to commend us for the effort. If he bridles at second guessing and hindsight, given the advice he was given, who can blame him?
G.W. gave a speech all right. It was entitled "I Had A Dream."
I had a dream that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators.
I had a dream that the expatriates and exiles we championed would dominate Iraq for the foreseeable future.
I had a dream that we could have permanent bases in Iraq.
I had a dream that America could triple its secure hydrocarbon reserves by politically annexing Iraq.
Postscript: The media seemed to enjoy President Bush's use of the word 'addicted.'
America is addicted to oil, he said. "Well, that sounds just like America is drunk on oil," was the wisdom from the peephole and America needs a Gasaholics Anonymous meeting chortles the media.
Pardon me, but I don't think that Karl Rove, even on his best day, would have considered it possible for the media to whoop it up over the word, addicted, when the White House oil crew had just done the unthinkable and bear hugged every liberal's energy policy.
Vote for the GOP, the clean energy Party.
I Had A Dream.
Labels: Creative Writing, Published Letters
