Checking Out Alternatives to the Lamestream Media

One of half-term governor Sarah Palin's favorite targets is what she so, uh... scathingly... yeah, that's it, scathingly... calls the "lamestream media," which hardcore conservatives take to mean pretty much everything that doesn't toe the line defined by approved rightwing outlets like Fox News Channel.  Reporter Bernard Goldberg - who is an excellent sports journalist when he's not being an idiot on Rupert Murdoch's network -  makes the same assertion, and even wrote a book called A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media. So maybe we're missing out, and we ought to be paying more attention to what conservative media has to say.

Let's take a look then, at a couple of articles from Friday.  The first is from National Review Online - the web-based arm of that right wing bastion The National Review - and it's titled Obama vs. the iPad.  In it, author Mike Gonzalez of the conservative Heritage Foundation claims that remarks the president made at Hampton University's commencement reveal not only a disdain for new media, but a predeliction for the totalitarian control of information.  In particular, he focused on this part of President Obama's address:

You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads, and XBoxes and PlayStations ... information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.

Now personally, I don't find that passage particularly threatening as it stands, but if one reads the rest of it in context, it becomes - amazingly - even less threatening:

This class is graduating at a time of great difficulty for America and for the world. You’re entering a job market, in an era of heightened international competition, with an economy that’s still rebounding from the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You’re accepting your degrees as America still wages two wars –- wars that many in your generation have been fighting.

And meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- (laughter) -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.

Class of 2010, this is a period of breathtaking change, like few others in our history. We can’t stop these changes, but we can channel them, we can shape them, we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time.

According to the Mike Gonzalez, in using these words, Mr. Obama is exhibiting the same attitude as Britain's King Charles II, right before he shut down the newspapers (I kid you not), rather than commenting on the value of education in helping people advance their lives and learn to differentiate useful information from dishonest spin.  But perhaps it's easy to see why Mr. Gonzalez might be threatened by that.

If you thought that was idiotic, though, hold on to your hat, because here's one that truly plums the depths of crass stupidity: Barack Obama Feasts on Hot Wings as Michelle Pushes Child Obesity Efforts.  In it, writer Alex Pappas exposes the savage truth that the President of the United States had some hot wings on a visit to Buffalo, NY, while at roughly the same time in Washington, DC, First Lady Michelle Obama announced a new program to help schools work with local chefs to create and maintain healthier student lunch menus.  This is news because adults can never do anything children shouldn't, and... uh... and... well, frankly, I'm at a loss.  This isn't news, is it?  It's a desperate attempt at a smear that doesn't even rise to the level of pathetic.

But then, this article appeared at The Daily Caller, the pet project of former Crossfire cohost Tucker Carlson, which launched earlier this year to great apathy, despite a stated commitment to "breaking stories of importance."  (Like Wing-Gate.)  Anyone who has followed Mr. Carlson's career knows he is a longtime student of ham-fisted and vacuous talking point opinionation, so although dreck like Mr. Pappas' article should come as no surprise, it is no less worthy of our deepest scorn.

To be clear, neither the NRO or The Daily Caller are in any way fringe sites, and the former in particular is host to such conservative luminaries as race-based internment cheerleader Michelle Malkin, the definitionally and factually challenged Jonah Goldberg, and the shrill and - let's face it, rather ridiculous - Ramesh Ponnuru.  What sites like these truly need isn't additional readership, but a thorough demolition in the style of Jon Stewart's legendary interview on Crossfire, which contributed greatly to getting the show cancelled.  (See below.)  In the meantime, however, I think it's safe to say that, despite the fact that she reads all the newspapers, Sarah Palin's standards for worthwhile information are different from mine.

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