Media “Vapidity” Drives Reporting on Obama Decision to Drill Offshore (VIDEO)

Read Time:2 Minute, 3 Second

I just received a tweet from the lovely Arianna Huffington recommending I take a peek at The Huffington Post story about the media circus that surrounded the president’s decision to drill for oil. So, I wandered over and found the following story and video by the most talented Jason Linkins. I liked it so much I borrowed all but the headline, linked amply of course to her webmagazine. You’re going to love this one:

So, as most of you know by now, President Barack Obama came straight out of the blue this week with a decision to start up some crazy new offshore drilling campaign. I thought the decision was pretty strange myself — but, hey, it’s an opportunity to ask some pretty substantive questions.

For example: What changes can we expect in terms of our oil imports from the Middle East? Has the technology of drilling gotten better–are we less likely to experience the devastation of another oil spill? How is this decision going to affect the bottom line of oil companies? Will they reinvest this money back into America’s devastated communities? Will they reinvest in energy solutions that are sustainable? In solutions that promote further independence from foreign oil? Is this going to increase jobs?

These are the sorts of things that your 24-hour news media could maybe take up in earnest. Unfortunately, they all had much better things to talk about. Who will win the political debate? Will this help or hurt Democrats? Will this earn them Republican support, on anything?

So, we made a little video of the entire day’s festival of vapidity, boiled down into ten minutes. You’ll enjoy how tremendously impressed the media’s talking heads are with themselves for the way they expertly recalled that time someone said, “Drill, baby, drill.” You’ll get to hear the Original Hologram Jessica Yellin introduce an entirely holographic idea called “principled post-partisanship,” to the bafflement of Rick Sanchez. You’ll see that though the political press loves nothing more than to discuss the who’s-up/who’s-down side of this political decision, they don’t even really know anything definitive on that topic either.

Oh, and if anyone actually knows the answers to any substantive question on how THE HOLES DRILLED IN THE OCEAN WILL IMPACT ACTUAL NON-BELTWAY DWELLING AMERICANS, could you please maybe send Contessa Brewer a tweet or an email or something? She apparently doesn’t know any actual reporters, who do actual reporting.

A MUST WATCH:

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Bee
13 years ago

It certainly is easy to see how TOTALLY FUCKING STUPID every single news…person?? is now, when you get a bunch of them clipped together one after the other.

13 years ago

Don’t the media just drive you nuts with their love of slogans and buzz words. To drill or not to drill, that is the question, whether it be nobler . . .

13 years ago

TC has a grand saying… “great minds…” So as not to compete I’ve kept my posting on this topic over at the Myth… and eco-sanity blogs. It’s a good piece by JL.

13 years ago

Mike, What a GREAT Video. I had seen it earlier today on HuffPo and almost posted it on my website. I only delayed because today is WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY. I may get it up tomorrow.

Cable Television is doing one really rotten job of actually reporting the news. As the article suggests, they only care about the “horserace.”

Compare that to the really superb job being done by NPR and you’ll quickly discover why Morning Edition gets my full attention for two hours each morning.

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