Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Village Bubble

I talked about the Village treatment of the Massa story last night as a prime example of the Village Bubble that convinces DC journalists that their opinions on what America thinks is news is actually what America cares about.  CNN's Candy Crowley demonstrates this perfectly today:
 Today, the House of Representatives is debating H. Con Res. 248, a privileged resolution brought to the floor by Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Walter Jones (R-NC), and others that required Congress to debate whether or not to continue the war in Afghanistan.

During one point in the debate, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) delivered an impassioned speech against escalating in Afghanistan and condemned the media for its wall-to-wall coverage of the scandal surrounding former Rep. Eric Massa while ignoring the Afghanistan debate in Congress.
Now Patrick Kennedy has a point here.  The problem is the Village is making the Massa story out to be the only thing that America cares about right now when it simply isn't...there are much larger things going on right now in Washington.

But not to Candy Crowley.
Soon after the speech, CNN host Rick Sanchez asked State of the Union host Candy Crowley to comment on Kennedy’s media complaint. Crowley mused that it could be argued “one way or another” whether the Massa scandal was as important as debating the war in Afghanistan, and even suggested that Kennedy made his speech because “the Democrats in particular and certainly…Kennedy would like the Massa story to go away“:
CROWLEY: I think think it is one that — what he is arguing — is that it is one of perspective and [he] obviously believes that Massa’s been given too much attention where the war in Afghanistan is not. You know, we could argue one way or the other, but it is very clear that he –the Democrats in particular and certainly Congressman Kennedy in specific would like the Massa story to go away.
Really?  Like, there's not a huge story involving Afghanistan or President Obama going after health insurance providers again today in St. Louis, the story of the day is "The Dems are trying to make the SUPER EXPLOSIVE MASSA SCANDAL go away?"

That's what America is really talking about?

Bullshit.

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