I have reached the point of no return in my contempt for the press. They are, to a person, irredeemable. If one needed any further proof, just peruse this week's "Media Matters" column by Jamison Foser. He opens with a quote from the odious self-professed gay basher Tucker Carlson:
Tuesday evening, Tucker Carlson announced that the "American public" has an "arrangement" with Bill Clinton: "We won't ask about your personal life. Don't talk about it. Right? I mean, that's kind of fair. I don't want to know who he is or is not involved with. I don't want to hear details about his marriage. But he keeps forcing them on us."
--snip--
CARLSON: I don't want to hear details about his marriage. But he keeps forcing them on us. Example A, Bill Clinton on the night of their 32nd anniversary said this: "We were laughing and talking, and believe it or not, the campaign even gave her the night off. We had about decided by the end of the night that the key to a long relationship was never being bored with one another, and I would still rather spend the night talking to her than anyone I can think of."
Now, leaving aside the fact that that's just a provable lie --
[laughter]
CARLSON: -- it breaks the deal we have.
Foser responds: "The notion that Tucker Carlson and his colleagues in the media don't raise questions about the Clintons' marriage is absurd; the claim that they are the only couple granted such privacy is laugh-out-loud funny."
Yet, they continue to pretend that the Clinton's marriage is some kind of closed book, opened by them, and for that reason alone is fodder for discussion. This is what passes for political discourse in our country right now. This is the kind of thing that frustrated the bejeebers out of me back in the late 1990's. This is the kind of thing that keeps me from saying word one, even in a private, one-on-one discussion, against Sen. Clinton. This is, indeed, the reason why I find even what purports to be serious commentary on Mrs. Clinton is tainted by ready-to-hand right-wing talking points about her lack of principle and her opportunism. Part of what it means, to me, to be honest includes breaking free of these kinds of sick narratives, all linked to this most base, pornographic fascination with the private lives of two people.
Unlike Democracy Lover, I do not feel able to break away from all the filth by declaring myself somehow above it all. It is necessary to expose it for what it is, to turn over every little rock and watch the bow-tie-wearing bugs scamper away from the light.
This is where my religious beliefs come in to play. Not just the injunction against lying, or exposing hypocrisy. If we are to return some semblance of sanity to our collective lives, we need first to make sure that we do not participate, in any manner, fashion, or form, with any of the ways our current media game is played. I may be a tiny voice in a crowded field, but this is part of who I am and what I do. I spend my energies where they are best used, and calling Tucker Carlson a small-minded purveyor of the most base political pornography is part of what I feel called to do. That he is smearing someone with whom I disagree politically is beside the point. It is the sex-sodden, gratuitous nature of the beast that fills me with loathing. I would much rather peruse a magazine in a men's shop than the kind of filth he and others like him spew on an almost daily basis.
