Super Sunday

NBC, as part of its pre-Super Bowl hype, presented a brief interview of 44 by Today show host Matt Lauer. The video clip can be viewed here. Mr. Lauer would have the world believe that he is a serious journalist in the tradition of David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. For anyone still disposed to agree with that claim, watching a fawning Matt Lauer launch a powderpuff pitch at 44 with his opening question ought to dispel that notion.

But perhaps it is unfair to single out Matt Lauer for the practice of suspending journalistic standards that were enforced to the maximum degree during the eight years of the administration of 43. He is not alone in rushing to the front of the stage, desperate for recognition by the rock star president. In fact, he uses the term "rock star" to describe 44, who does nothing to discourage the comparison.

My friends at Powerline have some sharp observations about the lack of interest displayed by 44 in the ice storm devastation which just occurred in the state of Kentucky, particularly as it was given minimal air time compared to the post Hurricane Katrina coverage. It seems to this amateur weather observer that the ice storm, although terrible, didn't match the top to bottom property devastation of Katrina. But the point is well taken that there was widespread loss of power, not insignificant in wintertime, and the Kentucky National Guard had to be mobilized. In fact, the response of the local authorities was appropriate and a concerted effort by the federal government was not necessary, as it should not have been necessary post Katrina were it not for the rank incompetence of the New Orleans and Louisiana governments. That was the real scandal of Katrina, but it was not the one called for by the mass media narrative that blamed 44 for everything, including the storm (global warming, according to Al Gore), the levee failures (the feds should have been proactively fixing them, even though it is the local government's responsibility by law) and the isolation of people at the New Orleans convention center (where they had been ordered to go by the city government).

The media coverage was appropriate for the level of damage from the storm, just as the Katrina coverage was over the top. To paraphrase Rahn Emanuel, 44's chief of staff, a disaster is a great opportunity. In the case of Katrina, it was the opportunity of a lifetime for faux journalists like Anderson (Gloria Vanderbilt's son) Cooper to make their bones at the expense of a sitting president. Had the levees held, there still would have been a heck of a mess to clean, but not the video opportunities to show families who ignored evacuation orders being plucked from rooftops by helicopters dispatched by the very government being maligned by the journalists. There also wouldn't have been the spectacle of the media trying to shoot fish in a barrel by relaying monstrous and false rumors of carnage, rape and starvation at the iconic convention center. When the light of day finally revealed the stories to be uniformly false, it was as if there had never been any reporting of babies being raped by sex offenders. Nothing was said, no retractions or apologies for lying on camera were offered.

43 took it all in stride, trying to be magnanimous and reach out to the legitimate storm victims and not engage in a vigorous defense of his government. Instead, the nay sayers commanded the high ground, and used it to their advantage. If 43 had a flaw (he had many, as do we all) it was not standing tall and outing those who lied about him. When the lies were repeated day after day, they achieved status as truths, part of the mythology about the deficiencies of 43's term.