Infotainment Media Now Betting the Summer Box Office on Sequels

The Summer of Sequels.

I don't mean sequels in movies -- I mean sequels in news stories.

Right now the alleged news media is churning out sequel after sequel about Rand Paul's alleged testiness to female reporters.

Today he is allegedly testy with a male reporter, which should put an end to claims that he's testy with female reporters. After all, if he's testy with both, he's not singling out women.

But it won't be the end of it. Today, they just say he's testy with a reporter, sex unspecified; the next time it's a woman -- and there's about a 50% chance of that -- they'll forget the male reporter they claimed he was testy with, and once again claim he's testy with female reporters.

The same things impel movie sequels and Fake News Sequels. Sequels are a proven commodity. If this story delighted the leftwing blogs a week ago, it will likely delight them this week. This formula is already proven to work.

Furthermore, sequels are the easiest sorts of Narratives to produce by mediocrities and incompetents. The original might have taken a bit of ingenuity or luck, but scripting a sequel is an easy job for hacks. You just write the same story you did before -- even if the facts don't fit. It's the Narrative that sells, after all.

One more thing that makes sequels so attractive: The all-important Audience Awareness of the property in question is high. You don't have to work at building up audience awareness, as is the case in the original (mostly) story about Hillary Clinton changing her position on human rights violations in Colombia after a very, very deep pocketed miner paid $130 million into the Clinton Foundation.

That could be a sleeper hit, but no one's expecting gonzo box office out of it. The audience isn't there yet. (And, given the media's distaste for that kind of story, don't count on the media to advertise it much.)

So today, the left churns out the newest sequel to its ongoing franchise, Rand Paul Is Rude Especially To Women, Of Which Hillary Clinton Is One.

It will be rubbing elbows at the multiplexes with Chris Christie Did Something With a Bridge and Is Also Too Gruff, Especially In the Eyes of Women, Of Which Hillary Clinton Is One, and competing especially with Ted Cruz is a Woman-Hating Maniac Who Hates Women, Of Which Hillary Clinton Is One.

On the other side, you'll have a smattering of counter-programming sequels, such as Hillary Clinton is a Grandmother Who Loves Babies (and By the Way, Grandmothers Tend to be Women) and Hillary Will Be the First Female President Who Is a Woman.

Meanwhile, Jezebel will be producing its indie reboot: Vagina, A Love Story.

FROM: The Media
TO: America
Re: the Dumb Shit We've Got In Store For You

Pretty much it's going to be Binders Full of Women ever day for the next 500 days.

Hope ur cool with that, America.

posted by Ace at 02:40 PM

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