Missing the point by making too many points.

Dear George,

The mainstream media has a major blind spot. It gets so wrapped up in the petty details of the eternal now that it has missed the emergence of a new metanarrative.

Take Sarah Palin’s absence from the Sunday talk shows. My God, you’d think she’d shot another bunny the way the media waxed indignant. The speculation flew like snot in a sneeze. The RNC is sequestering her because she’s a loose cannon, she’s still upset over the media beating she took during the convention or, like you, she’s not allowed to leave the house unless she’s fully scripted.

Poppycock and balderdash, I tell you!

What we are seeing here is the first salvo in a skirmish that will redefine the relationship between government and the media.

Very simply, a decision has been made at the highest levels of government that the media is totally irrelevant, therefore their presence in the political process will be terminated.

All the First Amendment says is that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of the press. It doesn’t say anything about having to talk them.

Oh sure, the media will piss and moan and write hard-hitting editorials condemning the policy, while the blogosphere will breathe fire. And the public won’t give a damn because they stopped reading political news ages ago, and will hardly notice its absence.

Nor will the media suffer as long as it has a constant supply of celebrity gossip, which is all the public is interested in, anyway.

Sarah is a true pioneer. Not only is she history’s first female demagogue, but she is the woman who kicked the media out of politics. It takes a real woman to shatter the glass ceiling and torch the Constitution, all in one breath.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones