Dana Milbank's Story and the American Media

[alcibiades_mystery]

OK, so last night Dana Milbank was on Olbermann, telling little stories about how the very serious press covers campaigns. Keith kinda lit into him a bit about the Edwards haircut thing, and Milbank explained that it was "short-hand" used to express the DC press corps very sensitive "phoniness" meter. Straight face and all. So, he considers it the job of the press to gauge a candidates phoniness. Of course, since such a gauge would be far too complex for us mere mortals, the press must also invent "short-hand" such that we understand the phoniness meter, like, to use Milbank's examples, Edwards' $400 haircut (while claiming connection to the working class), or Romney's landscapers sans papiers (despite his supposedly "tough" stance against illegal immigration).

Let me be perfectly clear: I don't give a damn about hypocrisy. I care about effects, period. And effects, social effects, are the result of policy, not personal character. Social effects are impersonal with respect to the policy maker. But I fear that we heighten and contribute to the Milbank Version every time we jump on some perceived "hypocrisy." We have to stop thinking about the PERSON and start thinking about the POLICIES.

That said, Milbank ended with a funny story, though he immediately misinterpreted it, in my view. As a final example of his "phoniness meter," Milbank described the event many years ago during which Sargent Shriver went to a "steel workers bar" in Pittsburgh and "ordered a Courvoisier." Haha, he chuckled, as if to say, what a phony!

But wouldn't it have been more phony to order a PBR Tall Boy in a can, or a Yuengling Lager? Shriver drank cognac. That's what he drank. So why is it phony for him to order it in a steel workers bar or anywhere else? ANSWER: It's not. It's even painfully authentic. So here you have Dana Milbank, who apparently believes it is his job to sniff out personal phoniness of politicians, and yet he doesn't seem to have even the most superficial concept of what phoniness might be.

My head hurt. And still hurts.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Hypocrisy is a form of lying. Most people care.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. They shouldn't

They should judge policy makers based on the effects of the policies.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Ok... how's that going in Congress today?

Congress is full of hypocrites, and we are saturated with ineffective legislation and (worse) policies having negative impacts on our country -- all because those in Congress are more concerned with image than effectiveness.

Sorry, but I disagree completely. Talking about "two Americas" while bathing yourself in luxury is pretty hard to take.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. You draw a causal connection between hypiocrisy and bad policy

If you're looking at the bad policy, that's fine. I'm not convinced that the two are connected.

At a certain point, if I'm a poor person who gets health care because of some guy's policy, I don't give a goddamn whether he bathes in Evian and wipes his ass with Van Gogh originals. I care about the health care.

[Buzz Clik]

7. I guess we're both guilty of rationalization.

I rationalize that someone practicing a personal policy opposite to his public image is dishonest.

You rationalize that being a hypocrite doesn't disqualify that person as an effective leader.

:shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. I'm not sure what you mean by "rationalization"

I have an argument and I'm making it. You can agree with it or disagree with it without psychologizing it, it seems to me.

[NewJeffCT]

4. so, it doesn't bother you when "family values" candidates

wear diapers and solicit prostitutes, or try to solicit gay sex from strangers in a men's room, or send naughty text messages to underage boys, or denounce Bill Clinton for getting a blowjob while cheating on their wives?

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. No, not really

What bothers me is that they propose and defend policies that stifle free expression of sexuality. If they engaged in the same behaviors and had different policies, or if they had policies that encouraged free expression of sexuality while being monstrous prudes and scolds in their personal life, I wouldn't give a damn.

The policy's the thing, and should be. Everything else is celebrity watching for morons. It's only sad that it masquerades as politics.

[Buzz Clik]

8. oh, my.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. What?

Did I say something shocking?

:shrug:

[chelsea0011]

9. Milbank completely misses the point. The Edwards haircut or the

Dean "scream" become news because it isn't news anymore, it's entertainment. And to use the Romney illegals trimming the hedges and painting his house as the same as a haircut is silly. Edwards isn't running on a platform of "haircuts are too expensive". It was a hit job by the media about nothing. Romney wants illegals out of here and wants to punish even the children of illegals. It is his issue and Romney got caught.

[Supersedeas]

10. Milbank is one of the most phony reporters in Washington-parts of the accomplices that create our

current political mess

[mulsh]

13. Milbank- a shining example of vapid "journalist" phony too

n/t

[blm]

14. Exactly - Bush on an aircraft carrier was phony, or wearing cowboy duds when he's afraid of horses.

Kerry windsurfed because he has windsurfed for YEARS and it is a very challenging sport. He also is a lifetime hunter, plays hockey and soccer, long distance cycles, and flies airplanes and rides motorcycles since he was a teen.

But the press wanted to LIE about what they viewed as phony behavior because Kerry also wanted to stop the corporate media from increasing its ownership of news outlets at the expense of democracy and fairness for minorities and small businesses.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. I don't care about Bush's phoniness any more than Kerry's purported phoniness

I care about policies.

[blm]

16. Yes WE care about policies - the presscorps doesn't and refuse to do so because it is against their

owners' direct needs.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Anyone Remember Dana During Gannon/Guckert???

Talk about phony...here was a guy Milbanks saw day in and out at the White House and at first said that the scandal was no big deal and then even went on to defend Gunkert by dismissing those of us who saw Gannon as a ringer in those conferences. That phoniness sure didn't bother Mr. Millbanks.

This shitpile tries to play both sides of the fence...aping right wing talking points as "conventional wisdom" and whatever doesn't match up to those points are "phony". But he's just one of many stenographers who pollute the airwaves and print with their "holier-than-thou" comments.