It is ironic that the thrust of the Democrats' spin on the Foley affair is that the Speaker of the House did not give enough attention to a possible problem with Mark Foley -- his overinterest in young male Congressional pages.
If there was ever a group that suffered from an even more severe case of attention deficit disorder that Dennis Hastert has ever been accused of, it is the mainstream media.
The evening news and the media have vigorously flogged the Foley story for over a week. In one week alone between September 30th and October 6th, ABC, CBS and NBC have produced an astonishing 103 stories on the Foley flap.
And what's wrong with that?
Let's read a bit from Buster Foghorn's Indictment: Media Lacks Sense of Urgency and Importance:
Dateline: Saturday, October 7, 2006, the Mark Foley story dominates the news cycle. Meanwhile, the “urgent and important” news is virtually ignored: North Korea prepares for a nuclear weapons test, the Iranians continue to stone-wall the UN over their nuclear weapons program, Afghanistan and Iraq continue to challenge, and the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon fail to enforce another resolution.
I just can’t help believing that this current over-kill with the Foley story will rank right up there with the 24/7 wall-to-wall coverage previously accorded the John Mark Carr return from Thailand and the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson investigation. Faulkner seems particularly apt as a description for the dominant news cycle stories: “tales full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Jumping ahead:
I look in vain for the “serious” reporting; I wonder where is the sense of urgency and importance required for these serious times? Most of the legacy and cable networks, the radio, and the legacy media, seem to be acting just as they might if in a time warp enjoying the run-up to WWII during “the phony war” while cavorting at a French chateau.
Urgency And Importance
Today, October 7, 2006, marked the christening of the USS George H.W. Bush. Carriers are like a small city - first responders, medical, legal and supply departments, aviation repair shops open 24/7 to keep the planes in the air, on-going education classes, a weapons boss, a maintenance shop, a brig, etc. You get the idea - any time of the day or night, there is action.
During wartime, the up-tempo environment is a constant go-go-go. There is a buzz on board as the huge elevators bring the bombs up to the carrier deck from the bowels of the ship. As the weapons are loaded onto their planes loving messages are appended. During Gulf War I we sent Saddam some thoughtful notes.
And in this city at sea, there is a “Top Dog” whose word rules “the city” – he is the Captain of the ship, the Commanding Officer (CO). When the ships’ company is on board the crew can number about 3,500 personnel and when the Air Wing embarks with the pilots and their crews, the number can go over 5,000.
During this “silly news cycle” covering the Foley case, I remembered how the tempo changed on my carrier when a new CO reported after our ship returned from the Gulf. Carriers go through repair and work-up cycles and the tempo can slow. The new CO would have none of this reduced speed. Department Heads were told: when you move around the ship wherever you go and whatever you do, demonstrate a sense of “urgency and importance.” Quickly, the pace clicked up appreciable and folks began to step lively and get things done. The message was contagious and others followed the lead.
The verdict on today's mainstream media is not a happy one:
There is little sense of “ urgency and importance” in media reports. The unimportant dominates. Solzhenitsyn’s sage advice continues to be ignored; no one seems concerned they are wasting their goodwill and exclusive franchise. The media deserves to be in the dock. The guilty finding will be much like the one for Papillon, where the charge was for a wasted life . . . .
There is a time for frivolity, even in the news, and there is a time for seriousness. Which sort of time are we in now, with terrorists busy plotting more murder and mayhem and a U.S. Congressional election just around the corner?
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