Thursday, July 24, 2008

Doing the work for me

When I wrote that Jib-Jab sucks hard, I had a longer post in mind that I was going to write explaining my position and why I think it is that the traditional media seems to love them so much. Fortunately, if you wait long enough- someone else will usually come along and say what you had intended and in a way that is much better said. To wit- here's Atrios commenting on someone else's post at Open Left:
As many others have observed, it's an odd thing about political journalists that they hate much about the subject they cover, specifically the messy business of politicians actually doing things to attract supporters and voters. While one can certainly hate certain structural aspects of politics as institutionalized in this country and wish them to change, the part about politicians trying to do things to get voters to vote for them is pretty much a constant in a democracy.

To be a good critic you actually have to have the capacity to love what you cover, otherwise you're just a cynical curmudgeon.
This is why they love the inanity that is Jib-Jab, as they both share a deep contempt for the political process. They all want some magical land where all politicians can be like Martin Sheen, Michael Douglas or Kevin Kline, presidents who say exactly what they mean and not have to worry about what the voters will think. Now, how does this president get elected? I have no idea.

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