Discussing the Gibson/Stephanopoulous performance last night, here's Michael Bérubé at TPM Café:
The point is that we are not dealing merely with a "corporate" media. That would be bad enough. We are dealing instead with a deeply decadent and deeply entrenched class of courtiers in the late stages of Bloated Beltway Media Empire, one of whose pastimes is chattering on about the folkways of the salt of the earth (bowling, shots-and-beer, guns, God). The level of chattering is inversely proportional to the decadence of the commentator, which is why you hear so much about small-town values from people who last caught glimpses of my neighbors when they watched the opening thirty minutes of Deer Hunter in their suite at the Willard Hotel.
Bérubé teaches at Penn State; hence the "my neighbors" reference.
I'm still boggled at Charlie Gibson (who, according to the print edition of Parade Magazine which I received in my paper last Sunday, makes $10 million a year) worrying about capital gains taxes. He really does seem to think that the average American makes above $200K a year (also from Parade, 2007 American median income -- $36,140) and sells stocks and bonds everyday. To pose a question that's often asked of candidates to him, "don't you think you're a little out of touch?"
Posted by Linkmeister at April 17, 2008 10:26 AM | TrackBack