Let's change the name of GD-P to "Political Entertainment Tonite"

[arendt]

<RANT>

The GD-P forum should be renamed Political Entertainment Tonight (PET). The flood of threads about 2008 presidential candidates contain nothing more than gossip and photo ops. Breathless gassing about preening and posing. And just as Entertainment Tonight's coverage of celebrity pseudo-events has hijacked "mainstream" corporate news with meaningless crap like the OJ trial, Brangelina, and Britney the Ho, PET has subverted any serious analysis of political issues and replaced that with the candidate as celebrity.

How are the scripted, confrontations, spats, and posturings of the utterly premature 2008 candidates any different than the tabloid gossip about who is stealing whom's lover or the WWF's phony feuds? How is Hillary/Obama/Edwards different than Brangelina and Jennifer? None of the candidate stories offers any in depth analysis of any policies. It is just "he said, she said" kind of catty, voyeuristic garbage. Poll numbers are about as valid a judge of political merit as box office receipts are of artistic merit. Maybe we should have a new poll here. Which politician is the equivalent of an Adam Sandler movie? And, with the dawn of the permanent campaign, politics has entered the same "floating world" of Hollywood celebrities - totally detached from reality.

The GD-P forum candidate threads are full of stalkers and blood feuds, akin to the kind of adolescent girl crush phenomenon that focused successively upon Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Donny Osmond, Ricky Martin, and so on down to whoever is "hot" today. And, just like Hollywood, the political consultants are no longer waiting for the "crush" to happen; they are manipulating and manufacturing the new Sinatras as fast as they can.

We have had Campaign 200X forums before. I am begging the moderators to move PET to its own little pigsty. Please do this so people who want to talk about the Iraq War, the invasion of Iran, the loss of Habeus Corpus, etc. can discuss things without having to shout over a roomful of screaming adolescents.

</RANT>

arendt

[HereSince1628]

1. Believe it or not...I remember when GD-P was created because

the candidacy advocacy and all its flamefests weren't welcome in GD. Interesting that now it isn't even welcome in the home that was made for it.

[arendt]

2. GD is now Gunslinger's Dungeon...

where any anarchist can post whatever he wants.

Like Andy Kaufmann, he can come on stage, do his laundry,
and call it comedy.

And, with the permanent campaign, GD-P has gone the same
way.

arendt

[HereSince1628]

4. Yes, that's one of the downside to a relatively very open bulletin board.

But, hidden amid the chaff there are germs of value and more than a handful of DU'ers who regularly generate posts worth the time it takes to read them.

[Divernan]

3. I think of them as the "Pimp My Candidate" threads & they are adolescent.

Now I'm waiting for you to get their canned flame posts replying to you - personal insults of your values, experience, education, morality, ending with LOLs or an assortment of insulting smiley face icons. The most incredible reply I saw was one calling Indiana Green "silly"! That is the last adjective I would ever use for IG.

[SteppingRazor]

5. If that's the worst one you've seen...

you've clearly never moderated this forum ;)

[DeepModem Mom]

6. People are human, even here at DU, and it's part of human nature...

to enjoy gossip, and, I suppose, infighting. GD Politics, I believe, was created for all kinds of political discussion. More serious discussions about Iraq, habeus corpus, etc., can usually be found in GD, and sometimes in LBN and GD -- and very often on the Greatest page. Even in these forums, of course, there's gossip, and some infighting. I'm afraid that's the reality most anywhere on the wild new frontier of the "Internets."

I appreciate your sentiments, from a long-time DUer, and the fluency with which you express them. Thanks for posting your views, and please rant anytime the spirit moves!

[welshTerrier2]

7. yep ...

candidate threads that focus on important national issues and policy - fine.

DU is currently being dragged through the mud. I'm confident the admins see this all too clearly and are currently weighing what to do about it. the current state of affairs cannot continue and it's only going to get much worse.

you can't ban everyone or lock all the posts or police every little thing. the solution, as you quite correctly proposed, is to stick all the noise in its own little playroom like a "GD - Not Issues Related" forum. this problem calls for a "macro" solution; not case by case moderation. it's too much work and too hard to do.