- George Orwell
At the end of this short post is a link to a New York Magazine excerpt from the new political blockbuster, Game Change. This particular tale is about John and Elizabeth Edwards... no not those Edwards, not the ones we read about in the paper or saw cuddling on talk shows.. but the real John and Elizabeth.
After reading this long and painfully detailed piece, I didn't ask myself, "whats wrong with these two people?" That was the least of my concern. What I wondered was this:
It's one thing for the mainstream media to claim it can no longer afford to field teams of investigative reporters out to dig up the truth out for us. I understand, revenues are down and yada, yada, yada. But during a presidential campaign these same whining print and broadcast media are like Jehovah witnesses to campaign staffers -- they litter the landscape of every credible candidate. They travel with the candidates, day and night, through rain and snow and sleet. They fly on the same plane with the candidate. They sleep at the same hotels. They are ever-present, right there in the center of candidate-ground-zero.
So, after reading this piece, (the kind of piece reporters call a "tick-tock," because it details moment by moment what happened.. what really happened -- after the fact and well after it could have a made a difference.) In this case it's an account of the Edwards campaign and relationship that, even though it played out right smack-dab under their new noses, they seemed unable to ferret out.
Nope. They didn't catch that story, not even when they the National Enquirer virtually handed it to them on plate. The story was right the hell under their noses. But, rather than "keeping the public's business public," they kept Edwards' business secret. It can now be said of that traveling news corp that they had stopped being reporters and became little more than an extension of the Edwards campaign PR staff.
As a result Edwards almost became the Dems nominee. And as such Sarah Palin, not Joe Biden, would be Vice President of the United States of America. And, with any bad luck at all, considering McCain's age, President. Shame. Shame, shame, shame. Where's the shame? At least the New York Times had enough self-respect left to fire Judith Miller. But no one, to my knowledge, has been canned for being manipulated and missing this potentially history-changing whopper.
Yes, I was disgusted to learn who the real John Edwards was thanks, not to the New York Times or Washington Post, but the scandal rag, National Enquirer. And I am disgusted to have been taken in by the phony, baloney St Elizabeth when, we now learn it was all an act. Every staffer on the campaign knew Elizabeth was a scheming, screaming, controlling, rude, b*tch. But, again, those reporters missed that and instead played along, raising her to a level just below Mother Teresa.
Had these two duplicitous phony's pulled this off, with the help of their ever obedient gaggle of reporters, we'd have a Elizabeth in the White House, a woman suffering from more than breast cancer, for which we all wish her well, but character cancer as well,for which there is no cure, never has been one, never will be.
That's it. It only get worse. So here's that link.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/
Steve
