Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Today's Blunder

I haven't written one in a while, because it must be an especially egregious offense to so move me. Therefore:

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, April 4 edition. Consider yourself on notice.

So something really important happened today, and you probably know what it was. Whether clever political theater or just a Grinchlike warming of the heart, the president of Iran released the 15 British sailors he'd been keeping as prisoners. If you were getting your news from square-jawed Brian Williams tonight, however, you had to wait to hear about that until after this bombshell: Senator Obama raised $25 million in three months!

Neat. Don't get me wrong, I love Barack, and while I'm trying to raise the money to attend graduate school back East I suppose I can't mock someone who keeps the coffers spilling over with a wink and a smile. It's a big deal, especially the new ways in which he's getting it done. But old habits petrify, and petrified newsmen can't resist the thing that really gets their pacemakers going -- handicapping the Presidential race.

I forgive them for this lapse, especially because it is a legit story -- Obama equalling Hillary's funding -- whether from a social change or a horse racing point of view. But NBC brought on Tim Russert to chit-chat with Brian about what a big deal this is, while glossing over Iran with less time and a stock montage of the sailors, including that poor girl forced into that awful veil they make women wear.

Coy gamesmanship or not, dramatically escalating tensions with the Anglo-American Enemy #1 is big deal. I don't care if Americans are sick of hearing about it or not. They're probably sick of hearing about global warming, too, and wish it would fix itself.

You'd sick that if there were some event that could actually attract Americans' interest to foreign affairs, it'd be a playground fight between our staunchest allies and most vociferous opposing nation-state. But apparently not. Apparently it's not as important as an election 19 months away.

2 comments:

Chaviva Gordon-Bennett said...

I'm more interested in tonight's NBC nightly news ... that is: Office Chaplains.

Creepy.

A.G. said...

I saw that, and it totally creeped my shit out