03:14 pm
Wallowing in Irrelevance, Part Two
I’ve already commented on just how utterly annoyed I am at the media’s obsession with the Obama New Yorker cover (and no I’m not even going to link to it this time — go use the Googles if you must), and how completely irrelevant the story is to all the challenges we as a nation face right now.
So why am I bringing it up again? Because it turns out my instincts pretty accurately reflect how the public feels as well. Recently the Minnesota Independent actually went out and did some research. What they found is worth quoting at length:
Wherever people behind podiums are yelling at other people behind podiums over some passing and inessential matter–the American political press is there! For the latest and possibly the most gratuitous case in point, witness the yards and yards of fevered dispatches and commentaries about the New Yorker’s Obama cover this week.
Let’s let Jon Stewart have the first and last word on that subject: “It’s a trifle. It’s nothing. There’s so many other things to talk about.” (And it appears the web-surfing public is with Stewart: Google Trends results for Monday, the day the story went large, show that related searches failed to crack the top 20 that day, and it was out of the top 100 by Tuesday…. But among journos and other jaw-flappers, it accounts for a staggering 2700-plus stories at Google News–in two days’ time.)
Emphasis added. Thanks to the folks at MIndy for confirming my view. Thanks also to Jon Stewart, who as always does media criticism better than anybody else out there. You can find the relevant clip both at MIndy and at the Daily Show.
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