I have gotten increasingly fed up with the mainstream media. There are a lot of reasons for this: the tendency of the 24-hour news networks to fill up all that time when horribleterribleshocking things aren't happening with trivial, unprofessional commentary; pandering to the lowest common denominator with news stories that reinforce the public's supposedly baser instincts; Rush Limbaugh. But I was reminded of something else today--that the media only knows how to write one story. Case in point: the Clintons. Accompanying today's coverage of the two American journalists who were given amnesty and escorted back to the US by former President Clinton was the background rumbling that sounds familiar. "Did Hillary know about that trip?" "There goes Bill again, trying to steal her thunder." "Poor Hillary, always shoved into the shadow by that spotlight-grabbing husband of hers." Or as the Huffington Post put it in their frontpage, breaking-news headline: "Bill Upstages Hillary...Once Again." Oh, the subtlety.
But wait...I seem to remember this story. Was it perhaps here? Or when President Clinton was campaigning for her in Iowa, here? Or when he stood behind her as she won her senate reelection, here? (I can keep going for awhile).
It's not simply the lack of originality that bothers me. It's also the notion, indelibly imprinted and reinforced over and over again, that a woman's natural place is not in the spotlight, or that a woman couldn't possibly do something important, like releasing prisoners from North Korea (a negotiation that the Obama administration had been working on for months), without her husband stepping in and taking care of it for her.
Come on, MSM. Step outside the box, follow Jon Stewart's example, or just stop talking.
Photo courtesy of flickr.
1 comment:
I agree. This is so tired and ridiculous. It downplays her work and her value. It's not like she was just sitting around, watching tv, waiting for him to come back. She is an important woman with a busy schedule.
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