Media Runs Fair & Unbiased Photo of Bachmann Eating Corndog

Here's how it works:

1. The media pushes a meme. In Bachmann's case, it's that she's crazy and might be sexually strange.

2. They run sexist and sexualizing photos of her. If asked why they have not run similar photos about liberal women they like, they will say "Well this photo reinforces impressions the public has about Bachmman."

3. They hope you do not notice that they were the ones pushing these "impressions" in the first place, later using them to justify their viciousness, and also hope you don't notice that when they say the public has these impressions about Bachmman, they chiefly mean the media itself.

It's a bad picture.

There have been hundreds of embarrassing photos taken of liberals -- it's hard to look presidential with barbecue sauce smeared all over your lips -- but they're never published.

Why?

Because they don't "reinforce an impression" the media wishes to reinforce.

It's always the narrative.

Why doesn't the media note Obama's fifty seven states? Oh, because no one thinks he's dumb.

Um, no one in your newsroom thinks he's dumb. I assure you a lot of people think that President Prompter is a mediocre intelligence, at best. (Where's his transcripts? Why have three colleges collectively put them into a leak-proof lead-lined vault beneath the sea? Because his grades were that good?)

This photo won't hurt Bachmann much. I doubt it will hurt her at all. It's so grossly unfair it says a lot more about the photographer and the media pushing it than it says about Bachmann -- people get that. They know a hostaet-job when they see one.

posted by Ace at 03:22 PM

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