Recently in Media Category

It took the obstinate and abstinent Sarah Palin, "natch," to puncture the thick prophylactic of MJ media coverage. She and her spokesperson, Meg Stapleton, managed to characterize her resignation as a heroic act.

Palin lamented that the biggest problem facing our nation is apathy, and with that, she announced that she'd walk away from the final 18 months of a four-year term. Stapleton put a nice spin on that, saying that Palin can't make change within the current political system, so she's looking for other, unspecified ways to make change.

So the woman who said she'd bring change to America now complains that she can't change Alaska because people don't play nice. But what would a maverick do...?

Palin at her presser used a basketball analogy, saying that a point guard must break a full-court press by racing down court and then finding someone else to hand the ball off to. Stapleton, speaking later to an incredulous Anderson Cooper, repeated the analogy. When he failed to get it, Stapleton responded with a marvelous, booming and condescending laugh, arguing something about how Palin "passed the ball off, and said I'm going around it, and we all have the same common hoop, but I'm going around the block." Huh?

I guess what bugs me is the old issue we've dealt with around here too many times: Media "bias." Palin and Stapleton engaged in the most disingenuous game today, clumsily attempting to frame her resignation as a profile in courage and wisdom. The only people who will buy any of it are the diehard partisans. And those are the same persons who lament how any push-back from an Anderson Cooper represents reprehensible and insufferable ideology. For such persons, all nature will look like a conspiracy against them.

On my commute home, I snapped this shot of Michael Jackson coverage outside Staples Center. Very nice look for the NBC reporter - suitcoat, shorts and clogs.

Shephard Smith worries that anti-Obama violence is in the air, here in a clip from Fox. This won't be popular with those who feel that Obama's administration is planning on rounding them up for daring to oppose mandatory abortions. But Frank Rich argues that, just as it took McCain's best efforts to calm down the people calling the eventual US president a treacherous terrorist, the GOP's leaders must calm down the people who are signaling their intention to "put an end to the false prophet Obama." Camille Paglia, herself a critic of Obama, shares some concerns about the threats against him here.

...between conservative media and liberal media is that the latter are far more likely to eat their own. See here, as Jon Stewart skewers Nancy Pelosi. I think it's part of the liberal temperament -- more given to wanting to fix things, they take public disagreements and dirty laundry as a natural part of life. Conservatives don't talk about certain kinds of unpleasantness in mixed company, and they get angrier when someone on their side is discussed in a negative light.

That's one reason why liberals are always surprised by charges of unfair media bias: "But we tend to make everyone's life hell!" I'm sure Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, and someday even Barack Obama will agree.

Beauty pageants should be an anachronism in 2009. These are young women who have yet to complete their education and professional training or to fully define themselves as human beings, yet they're being "judged" for their, um, talents. Miss City of Orange is a 19-year-old at Chapman University. Miss Huntington Beach is 18 but still in high school, and Miss San Bernardino is a 17-year-old high schooler, which sends a funny mixed message to middle-aged men ogling the TV set.

Such contests are all about the human quest for beauty, and yet we've never been able to take that at face value, so we ask them silly questions and nod, "uh-huh," as if to pretend we're interested in her personality, and then occasionally get offended. The Carrie Prejean saga shows that we're puzzled, just stumped, by gender and orientation roles in our day. As smart as we are, our scientists, humanists, theologians, philosophers and laity have no slightest consensus on how to view gender, marriage or any aspect of human behavior. That should make us all a little humble, shouldn't it?

...well, online versions of the dinosaurs. See here. Not much reason to believe that "fair and balanced" outlets have gashed the establishment boys. it goes back to my point that the people who decry an MSM agenda constitute a hyperpartisan minority, not the, um, silent majority of America.

Finally, something more interesting than a 30-point loss to a BCS team comes out of Ohio State:

...[T]here was no significant difference between the groups in thinking [faux-right-wing TV host Steven] Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism.

I'm pondering the comment from David L. about my post about Focus on the Family.

Dobson passing the torch of ignorant delusionalism on to a new generation of superstitious Christo-Nazis, how can this be a good thing?

Certainly there's a lot of anger there, as Fuller Seminary President Richard Mouw discusses in this piece.

Can we talk? I ask this as someone who has been one of the angry ones--angry about things that have been said about people like me. I've been on talk shows where people phone in to call me a fascist or equate me with those who burned accused witches at the stake. One remark that hit especially close to home was made by the editor of this magazine. He wrote that anyone--anyone!--who tries to make a scriptural case against same-sex marriage is guilty of "the worst kind of fundamentalism."

That hurt. I have spent several decades of my life trying to spell out an evangelical alternative to "the worst kind of fundamentalism." My friends and I have argued that the Bible supports racial justice, gender equality, peacemaking and care for the environment--views that often draw the ire of the worst kind of fundamentalists. But none of that seems to matter to folks who don't like our views about same-sex relations. Because we also believe that the Bible frowns on sexual intimacy outside of marriage between a man and a woman, we are being relegated to the margins of the civil dialogue....

I also want to hear from folks who worry about my views. What is it about people like me that frightens you so much? What would you need to hear from us that would reduce your anxiety? What is your vision of a flourishing pluralistic society? Where do people like me fit into that kind of society?

And David, I supsect there are fewer of you out there than there are of Mouw, and far fewer of you than of Mouw's angrier and less tolerant kin. In a confrontational democracy, you would lose. So I would suggest some enlightened engagement, rather than denouncing them as "christo-nazis."

Those of us who are more liberal derided Bush for refusing to engage or negotiate with "enemies and evil men" in Tehran, Baghdad and elsewhere. But that's been the reaction of most liberals to Obama engaging Rick Warren. Isn't that a bit inconsistent? Aren't liberals supposed to be at the vanguard of engaging other viewpoints?

Focus on the Family leader James Dobson has announced that he is giving up his chairman title and some administrative duties.

Dobson notes:

One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority... Though letting go is difficult after three decades of intensive labor, it is the wise thing to do.

I think he and Focus could be more intentional about the transition to "the next generation." And I would suggest that Dr. Bill Maier, a longtime friend and colleague who serves there as a VP, be one of the faces of their next generation.

Maier, who used to be one half of the "Bill and Sylvia" show locally on KBIG several years ago (I'll leave it to you to figure out which half), is a gifted and thoughtful articulator for postions I disagree with.

Maier earns from me the highest accolade I could give to an intellectual sparring partner: "Supple." I don't enjoy debating with people who are rigid, whether they are liberal or conservative. I enjoy debating with people who are supple enough to engage with shades of gray. Maier exemplifies this. He is unceasingly gracious to people who revile his opinions, whether they yell at him or send him nasty things in the mail or bombard him with harsh emails.

Dobson, for all the skills he brings to Focus, has lost credibility with most people who don't share his viewpoint. If Focus is serious about engaging their larger society in a debate that Focus should be welcome to join, then Maier could be the solution. Yes, liberals will fail to believe that anyone at Focus could be supple, but most of them have not spent 10 minutes with Maier. And if they did, they would come to respect him, grudgingly if not quickly. That alone should be reason for Focus to bring him to the fore in coming months and years.

At my workplace, here's an example of true old-school media, and proof that not all innovation is technological. In fact, it was predicted decades ago by wise futurists that "high-touch" approaches would often rise up as a sort of reaction to high-tech.