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September 26, 2005Media Whores and their CreatorsSo, it appears Cindy Sheehan has gone and gotten herself arrested while her supporters - proving definatively that they are permanently stuck in 1968 - shouted, “the whole world is watching!” (well, Al Jazeera was, anyway - note they got Sheehan with the “forlorn” expression) Whoopee. The woman, who this weekend kvetched because CNN et al were spending all of their time covering Hurricane Rita, which was “just a little wind and rain,” instead of Herself climbing all over Jesse Jackson, made certain she’ll be covered on all the channels tonight - that she’ll get the Drudge coverage and the number one spot on Technorati. She sat down where she wasn’t supposed to and, after three warnings, was “arrested.” “Attention all you cameramen, I am about to be arrested, please focus!” I can’t think of anything that seems to destroy people’s mental health faster than a few weeks or months of uncritical, gushing media hype. Think about the people you see in the news, day after day, gathering unconditional praise and coverage from the press. They lose themselves, lose their minds, and they are rarely ever the same after the adulation stops. In fact, I can only think of one person who got caught up in the destructive swirl of relentless positive press reportage and managed to find his way back to sanity, and that would be Sen. Joe Lieberman, and perhaps - I am only saying PERHAPS - his faith has something to do with his re-bound. The rest of them, once courted, feted, promoted, celebrated, hyped and carried by the press have a very difficult time of it, post-praise. Sen. John Kerry, a truly terrible presidential candidate, cold, stiff and barely articulate had months and months of uncritical love. Months of the press never asking him a single difficult question, months of the press scurrying to fight his battles, discredit his critics and pat him on the back after soft-ball interviews. He had the press basically promising him a 10-15% advantage for their coverage - a promise which it does seem they delivered on. When he still lost, and lost soundly, and all of the microphones and cameras went away, he couldn’t seem to believe it. After a nearly silent 20-year career in the Senate during which he did little more than write bills recognizing special days for special people, Kerry was suddenly opining on everything, calling press conferences and issuing statements, and yet the press was not loving him as it had. They barely noticed him. He was back to being a “local paper” story instead of a national figure. He hasn’t been the same, since. Sen. John McCain discovered he could make the press “love” him by criticizing his party and not merely working with the opposition but shoving his metaphorical tongue down their metaphorical throats. He became the media darling of 1999 and 2000, with endless magazine covers, endless gushing interviews with Katie and Diane and Oprah, endless furrowed-brow talks with Ted Koppel. The “Maverick” became the only acceptable sort of GOP candidate and - for many in the press - a palatable alternative to Al Gore, who was becoming problematic, what with Buddhist nuns, controlling legal authorities, Clinton-fatigue and spots of embarrassing exaggerations regarding his personal life and his “inventiveness.” When the press reluctantly left McCain behind to cover the actual GOP candidate, McCain was smart enough to realize that all he ever had to do to call them back and bask in the warmth of their klieg lights was to step left-and-lively, and he has done it ever since. He cannot stop himself. Those lights, those microphones, those headlines and all that unequivocal approval - it’s heady stuff to a guy who crashed 3 planes. Al Gore - well, what can be said about poor Al Gore? Told by the press, over and over, that he was gyped, even after a consortium of papers did themselves concede that he lost in 2000, he seems like a gas leak in search of a pilot light. But he’ll always have Paul Krugman. I cannot even imagine what will happen to any Clinton for whom the uncritical praise ends. And now, we see Mother Sheehan - an utter media creation who burnished her genuine tragedy with an ability to cry-on-cue, but who has long-since overplayed the “grieving mother” hand and become all about preening and performing for the camera. Yesterday people losing lives and livelihoods to a storm were mere peons interfering with her scheduled adulation. Today she got herself arrested, smiling the whole while and still quite certain that the constitution which guarantees her the right to self-destruct in an endless loop on CNN, is a constitution that is not worth dying for. Can a posing session for Playboy be far behind? That’s where all the sad she-clowns go when they’re usefulness has ended, isn’t it? Once again, repeat after me - it is amazing how much destruction is wrought because of a need to feel loved. I didn’t get small! The protests got small! Btw…I’m in a bad mood today. Blogging will be cloudy, with a chance of snark. Related: Wellstoning the King Funeral. UPDATE: ABP has some legal defense advice for Sheehan. Dr. Sanity offers some analysis on the whole worship-and-adoration thing. WELCOME: Michelle Malkin, Dr. Sanity, ABP and Confederate Yankee readers. While you’re here, please look around. We’re also discussing progress by US Forces in Iraq, what 5 books inspired folks, the Vatican’s look at gay priests, why there should never, ever be another remake of Pride and Prejudice and oh, yeah…we have a newsy round-up with limerick included. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/09/26/media-whores-and-their-creators/trackback/ 17 Responses to “Media Whores and their Creators” |
September 26th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
Anchoress, party cloudy and snarky are still great reads from you. I know it’s all coming from a good place.
September 26th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Can a posing session for Playboy be far behind? That’s where all the sad clowns go when they’re usefulness has ended, isn’t it?
Please, please, please do not give any ideas to Algore or Monsieur Kerry, who served in Vietnam. No one wants to see them posing in Playboy.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
I would far rather have the love and respect of a few good people in my congregation than the fawning attention of the press. (And I’d rather have that love include their willingness to tell me honestly when I’ve messed up.)
I think Sheehan et al. need to come to the realization that the Universe does not revolve around them. That it’s not all about them, regardless of what the media says.
I think that’s a danger a lot of “famous” people fall into. It’s dangerous to be surrounded by sycophants and yes-men.
One thing that my faith regularly reminds me is that I am just a tiny blip in a much, much larger thing. And that my position is not to draw attention to myself.
If I could ask Cindy Sheehan one question, I would say: Will your “popularity” matter in 100 years? Will anyone remember or care who you were?
September 26th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
Sheehan has the most amazing ability to instantly put on a completely fake, pained, far away, forlorned, save me look whenever the cameras are around. Snark is definitely in order when dealing with this woman.
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I predict she will have a much harder time of it when the cameras finally go away. For all of their innumerable faults, at least McCain and Kerry were bona fide public figures before the media began doling out the love. She was nobody. They created her ex nihilo.
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Kerry and McCain can at least go back to the fawn fest in the Senate. She gets to go back to California with nothing, perhaps even minus some stuff (like the remainder of her living family.)
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That day, we may witness a personal, psychotic meltdown of gigantic proportions. The whole RITA STOLE MY HEADLINES stuff from Dailykos shows the potential for instability is not far under the surface.
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I wonder, who will get the blame then?
September 26th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
Great links, today. If you are this prolific on the blog when you are in a bad mood, I’ll bet your house would be spotless and ship shape if you went on a cleaning jag.
September 26th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Al Gore - well, what can be said about poor Al Gore? . . . he seems like a gas leak missing a pilot light.
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Algore is just biding his time for bigger and better things. Little known facts about Algore –
Emperor of the Moon in the 31st Century; also head of the Vice Presidential Action Rangers, tasked by the Constitution to preserve the space-time continuum. He also appears on the $ 500 bill. By the year 3000, he also claims to be inventor of the environment and is the author of Earth in the Balance (and the much more popular Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Conrad#Al_Gore
September 26th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Did you notice the look of intense pleasure on Cindy Sheehan’s face as she was arrested today for blocking traffic?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9493139/
Media whore, indeed.
September 26th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
I’m just captivated by the phrase “sad she-clown.”
September 26th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
Ahhh…pst314! I totally agree…she was in pure ectasy, like a sugar-high kid getting attention after the tantrum…a prostitute riding the short-lived rush of a binge bought by selling ones body/soul…when can we finally find time to laugh and point fingers at these fools for the flimsy provocateurs they try to be?
September 26th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
A man would have to be down below the bottom of the barrel to want to see her in a Playboy layout. Notice the nice tattoo on her ankle. Yup. I wish my Mom had been like that. NOT! She looks as though she’s deriving a little too much pleasure in this whole thing. As in a thrill. Maybe now she won’t be so shrill. {slapping my own face}
She’s being taken by force to the pokey and she still has this you know what eating grin on her face. The grieving mother. My aunt’s fanny! Her son was probably so ashamed of her he joined the Army to get away from her and now she’s still embarrassing him.
September 26th, 2005 at 8:53 pm
“A gas leak in search of a pilot light”…what a great line!
September 26th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Law & Order: Cindy Sheehan Is Arrested
Because every cause needs a martyr.
AP reports: “Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who has used her son’s death in Iraq to spur the anti-war movement, was arrested Monday while protesting outside the White House.”
(Hattip: Amicus…
September 26th, 2005 at 11:18 pm
A Media Creation
So I see Cindy Sheehan was arrested. Hm. Looks awful happy about it, too. Hey, attention is attention, right? Personally, I knew Sheehan’s celebrity was coming to an end when I read this:i am watching cnn and it is 100…
September 26th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
Anchoress, I love all your posts today! I have been in the same mood–must be the sum total of everything in the MSM in the last month or so. Unfortunately for the people around me today, I choose to put it all in spoken rants.
Let’s give equal time to the he-clowns out there…More than a fair-share of those. Too bad there’s no place for them to sell their last bits of dignity. I guess woman are too smart to buy stuff like that-Playgirl notwithstanding. Perhaps that can find a position with Jimmy Carter. Maybe Al Gore will attend Barbara Streisand’s Global Warming Crisis Party…Hope they don’t flick their Bics when Joan Baez starts playing. Again.
September 27th, 2005 at 10:58 am
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