The Media, Again II

Apparently I was among the earliest bloggers to write about the "staged" teleconference, though certainly not the best (I can find only one blogger who posted previous to me). It has now turned into a full-blown, media-manufactured frenzy.

I used to like politics. I knew it was a game, but I felt like we little people had a chance of finding out what was really going on, so I found it fascinating to dissect and decipher; the politicans spun and the media dug. And yes, they all had their biases and their turf to protect, but you could usually figure it out rather easily, and just as easily communicate the truth another person. But in the last four years it's been no fun anymore. I felt this way leading up to the election--discouraged and disappointed in our society--but it dissipated afterwards. But I'm again reminded that it's life and death; it's not a game. Yet people aren't playing by the rules anymore and it's all about personal and ideological power, not about trying to do what's right. And doing what's right matters more now that it has in a very long time.

Yeah, I know that wasn't coherent. I'm trying to force myself to tie this story off neatly, but I don't think I care enough; I'm too disgusted to care. Everything I have read has convinced me even more that this is a tempest in a teapot. Those who call it "staged," have not a whit of evidence that the soldiers were told what to say, or that the president had specific questions he was reading from. By definition then, it can be neither staged nor scripted. Managed and choreographed? Absolutely; it's politics as it's been done for decades.

But these people say it better:

Big Lizards: the best discussion of the issue I've seen (notice the "Update" in particular)
SGT Ron Long: A milblogger who participated in the teleconference
Michelle Malkin: Roundup of the right side of blogosphere; from there you can dig deeper and find links to the other side, too.

This is part of why I didn't want to get into discussing politics. It's a sewer, and so many people are so ignorant, and others so shameless and manipulative, that facts and logic don't mean a thing. It's a losing game.

I quit. No more politics.