The other day on MSNBC I saw Andrea Mitchell talking to a gentleman about his article on how politics in the south has changed in the 2008 Presidential Election. The man from Newsweek (Christopher Dickey) was talking about a recent trip he had taken throughout the south judging people's reactions to Obama's "Historic" candidacy. And there a few things I noticed that bothered me about the news segment.
Observation 1
Christopher Dickey's article "Southern Discomfort" unfairly portrays all people from the south as either born-again followers of the Obamassiah or conservative racists afraid of change.
Had I not been a person from the south or a frequent observer of the political process I could have come away with the idea that every southern conservative is a racist or is afraid of Obama's falsely rumored Muslim faith.
There isn't a single example of an articulate or educated conservative in his article. The only conservatives are delusional racists.
Observation 2
Andrea Mitchell is an idiot.
In our 24 hour News world we are constantly reminded of the stupid questions people can ask. In this Clip, Andrea Mitchell asks if Tim Kaine's (D-VA) potential nomination for Obama's VP has a potential spill over affect in North Carolina. IS SHE KIDDING?
Think about this: In 2004 John Edwards a Democratic Senator from NC was on the ticket and that didn't help John Kerry get one vote that he didn't already have. This is common known knowledge. John Edwards didn't help John Kerry in NC one iota.
So the question is begging to be asked: Why would Andrea Mitchell think that the governor of another state would help swing undecided votes to towards a particular ticket? Does she know anything about politics?
I can't figure out why she would ask such a stupid question unless its just to fill time. Watch the clip below:
So basically, I want to know: Why are these anchors on TV so stupid? and why do they get paid so much for mindless dribble?
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2 comments:
Upon reading "Banstead's Blog" I immediately identified several problems within your argument.
I believe, Mr. Banstead, that you assume too much in asserting that Chris Dickey is portraying all conservative southerners as either racist or afraid of Obama's alleged Muslim faith. It seems to me that you believe Mitchell and Dickey's observations describe all middle-class people born in the southern United States, this is not true, quite the opposite in fact. The statements made are done so referring to southerners whom race plays a significant factor in their daily lives and still feel the implications of years of racial oppression and inequality. This is evident by MSNBC’s summarization of the conversation as ‘Newsweek examines how the election is playing in the old Confederacy;’ this explicitly shows that comments made are referring to a much smaller group than you assume, and not just southerners in general. Also, the picture chosen to most accurately represent the article is of an antebellum plantation home with an oak lined driveway, an obvious reference to the old south. Now Mr. Banstead, if you read the article, which I have suspicions you didn’t, you would know the article mentions several times the Civil War and its lasting societal effects. This discussion was aimed at the evaluating the impact of the election on a specific part of the population, a more specific segment than you obviously realized.
I suggest next time you take a moment and analyze these comments a little more thoroughly.
Mr. Anonymous,
Perhaps the phrasing could have been different on my part but I fundamentally disagree with your assessment of the article. Had I said "all (white) people from the south" there would have been no room for your argument. In the video, Mitchell and Dickey clearly refer to "white people" in the south, not a particular group. Also, it is not an issue of assumption that Mr. Dickey portrays all conservative southerners as racist or afraid of Obama's "muslim" heritage. In this article there isn't a single person in this article who is portrayed as a conservative who doesn't have a negative aspect to their story. Finally, the author interviews people across the economic spectrum, while he does make some class distinctions periodically throughout the piece, the interviews don't refer to just one segment of the population.
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