Social Media Is Hard Liquor for "Reporters"

Reporters say they just want to report the facts, but the dirty little secret is that they're chiefly interested in Reporting Themselves. They wish to advance in the pack; they wish to be the stars -- rather than the recorders -- of their stories; and they desperately, desperately wish to not merely report to you the facts but to insist upon what you should believe the facts mean.

There are too many examples of this to recount. Here's one that just caught my eye.

It's pretty clear to me Michael Scherer thinks he's a STAR...!!! and stars streak across the sky, baby.

Social media is like alcohol. It's addictive, and it reveals who you really are.

Michael Scherer can walk back and "add context" and "explain what he meant" all he likes. But he's revealed himself; he is firmly on Team Leftwing and when he's not working, he's snarking about Republicans.

Yes, his idea of "time off" is to snark about Republicans. That's not his job; that's what he does in his pleasure-time.

His point, of course, is stupid. Jindal is pointing out that rather than solve the problem, Obama is focused -- as usual -- on solving the PR problem; and Jindal, as both a high official, a politically invested analyst, and a governor of a state which will be affected by the sequester, is right to criticize Obama.

But does that mean Obama should ignore the actual problems of governance and instead focus solely on his PR pass-the-buck strategy? In Michael Scherer's world, it means exactly that, because he is engaged in the mythmaking function of fiction, and fiction has Designated Heroes and Designated Villains.

posted by Ace at 01:21 PM

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