McCain, Mooch, and Priebus: the soap opera vs the substance
Over the last week, an excessive amount of chatter has been devoted to developing a personality profile of Anthony Scaramucci (based on his Tweets and a vulgar interview, rather than say this thoughtful podcast on addiction) and his rivalry with the current WH COS.
There seems to be endless fascination with office politics, fed by sources (leakers) who are getting the chance to talk to journalists (gossip). Interestingly, reporters seem to be way more into the “whose up, whose down” conversation that only impacts a few people and interests no one outside of the Beltway (seriously, does it really matter who is COS with Trump running the show?). More importantly, the way in which FBI CI is controlling and determining the news that’s “fit to print” by giving out morsels of TrumpRussia “scoops” to hungry reporters hoping to impress editors and publications seeking clicks should be disturbing to anyone who values the ‘fourth estate.’ While we celebrate (hope for) the latest Trump blunder on Russia, we are ignoring that the American counterintelligence community is running a domestic propaganda campaign against the incumbent president via leaks to the NYT.
The way in which the IC has been able to capture and control our “free press” demonstrates the degree to which in a fragmented media environment, most political reporters have become spokespeople for the source that is giving them the most helpful information at the moment. While this is good training for when they leave journalism to go into PR, it raises serious questions on how to proceed going forward as a country.
My hope is that the McCain vote will signal a new era of respect for the institution and the traditions of our Republic (even if bipartisanship doesn’t make electoral sense and trust in media is at all time low, maybe there is some the residual respect we have for the constitutional architecture that has served our country so well). It was never a winner to try to replace the Affordable Care Act (the individual mandate was the Heritage Foundation idea, so how could repeal and replace come up with something other than high risk pools?).
Overall, however, we get the media we demand. If we want a press that focuses on why health care is so expensive (technology plus surge in baby boomers means regulatory tinkering won’t bend the cost curve), then we have to stop clicking on drivel where internet body language experts try to fit a random photo into the preexisting narrative.
