Come back to the paradigm, Howard Dean, Howard Dean
Ho’ward Kurtz asks, is Kerry’s muttered aside the new Dean Scream? I don’t know, is Kurtz the new Annoying Rectal Itch?
Even a fungi like Kurtz occasionally contributes to the noble craft of curation by existing for the sole purpose of being treated, and he displays exactly this usefulness for authentic media criticism at the CJR Campaign Desk:
Is John Kerry’s muttered aside the new Dean Scream? Despite the low volume of the remarks, they’re getting constantly replayed on television. …
[Mark] Meehan [Kerry campaign] mentioned some Web sites and Vietnam vets who oppose Kerry, saying, “Every day John Kerry gets attacked.” Meehan also cited the “below the belt stuff” used against former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.), but that was in 2002. …
Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt didn’t do much piling on, apparently having calculated that the story was building nicely on its own. “These words are over the line,” he said, and “probably out of bounds.” There’s so much “anger” on the Democratic side, Holt said. … (Howard Kurtz’s Media Backtalk, Mar 11/04)
Is it surprising to see GOP locker room equipment manager Kurtz collecting Holt’s sweaty jock this way? Sadly, No! It’s a stretch to to slap the Dem-Rage label on an event consisting of Kerry coolly standing by his remarks followed by a cavalcade of outraged Republicans fogging up camera lenses with demands for an apology. (In passing, is the Bush/Cheney campaign’s strategy to alternate egregious arrogance, like the recent Mohammed Horton ads abusing 9-11 and Brown People, with implausible, perfunctory outrage? Fuck you! Now apologize. Fuck you! &c)
The CJR Campaign Desk, which does actual media analysis, looks at Ho’s musings in the context of the news cycle:
Between 2:00 p.m. Wednesday and 4:30 p.m. Thursday, CNN and Fox News C[h]annel each showed their audiences the Kerry remark, complete with audio and video, 16 separate times. This averages to about one viewing per every hour and forty-two minutes, which, given that these are 24-hour news operations, isn’t all that egregious.
But, then we checked in on MSNBC. In the same time period, that struggling operation (in terms of viewers) ran the clip 29 separate times, almost as often as CNN and Fox News put together. That’s more than once every hour; at one point this morning MSNBC aired the clip at 9:00 a.m., 9:10 a.m., and 9:20 a.m. … In 2003 Fox led prime-time ratings with 1,706,00 viewers, CNN scored second with 1,095,000 viewers, and MSNBC finished in a distant third with 443,000 viewers.
Is John Kerry’s muttered aside the new Dean Scream? Sadly, No!
There’s such a simple difference.
The endless, out-of-context replay of Dean made some Dem primary voters nervous.
Kerry’s remarks make Gooper candidates nervous. If he had apologized, I would have pulled a (metaphoric) Elvis and shot my TV. In fact, I wish he had amplified the remarks, citing chapter and verse as to exactly why those cats are crooked liars.
I agree. What’s up with the attention given to this in the media? It seems like everyone is implying he was ordering a dish of fresh golden retreiver puppies.
A canidate for President says that his opponents are crooked liars, in what was supposed to be a private remark… Stop the presses!!!!
As long as we’re griping, why does it always seem that Gillespie gets instant slots on the shows while it takes McAuliffe days to get air time?
“Those Democrats are sooooo MEAN! They called us BAD NAMES! and, and, and TED KENNEDY IS FATCrooked Liars
Is MSNBC the Dennis Miller of cable news channels?
Just try to imagine the “major league asshole” comment Tipsy McSniffles made to TickyDicky being replayed several times an hour on national television.
Damn liberal media.
Well it looks like Ho’wie’s Dean-dream “Kerry Scream” is already dropping off the rotation. I’d like to see the liars and crooks charge stick around too — geez, it’s TRUE! I think the charge will get a Queer-Eye type makeover, maybe a little suit and tie, as Dems hammer BushCo for being (a) deliberately misleading and (b) in league with corrupt fat cat donors:
Tax Cuts – for fat cats & CEOs and screw everyone else
Medicare – benefits pharmaceutical industry and HMOS, not seniors
Iraq – troops shouldn’t be dying for Halliburton, SAIC, DynCorp, etc.; is America $200 billion safer because of it?
Moral Crapola – Clear Channel, fundie churches that are more profit-oriented than spiritual
For (a) the WMD case and misrepresenting how “good” the economy is solid ammunition and for (b), simply mentioning Enron and Halliburton is gives you BushCo in a nutshell. I’d love to see Ken Lay captured in his spider hole.
Nailed it, AZMonk. Kerry did well by refusing to retract the remark (so what’s to retract?), but missed a golden opportunity to follow it up with a good scorched-earth list of examples.
Of course, maybe he did, and our docile press has chosen to ignore all but the initial soundbite…
Political Blogs C/D S & D
Somehow I imagine even Momus gawking slack-jawed at that description and going “fnuh”?
Anyways, I’m a stupid man with stupid pleasures so I second Pandagon and World O’ Crap and chip in Sadly, No!
Damn, peanut, a brilliant series.
Shorter Wingnuts: “All you fucking commie traitors do is swear and insult people!”
I guess the conservabots have realized that since they’ve already used “angry” as a Velcronym™ for Dean, they can’t recycle it for Kerry. So they’ll have to keep looking; “Botox” and “French-looking” will only be able to stay in rotation for so long.
I blogged on this at my blog, but I just wanted to say: Great title!