THE PLANK OCTOBER 25, 2009
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Frank Rich, today:
It would also be nice to think that the “balloon boy” viewers were the innocent victims of a dazzling Houdini-class feat of wizardry — a “massive fraud,” as Bill O’Reilly thundered. But even slightly jaundiced onlookers might have questioned how a balloon could waft buoyantly through the skies for hours with a 6-year-old boy hidden within its contours. That so few did is an indication of how practiced we are at suspending disbelief when watching anything labeled news, whether the subject is W.M.D.’s in Iraq or celebrity gossip in Hollywood.
Really? Maybe the reason that so few of us questioned the balloon's "waft" was that no one knows anything about balloons. As for Rich's last comment about Hollywood gossip, well, he can speak for himself. I suppose when your beat consists of drawing overly broad generalizations between pop culture and politics this tendency becomes more pronounced. Meanwhile, here is the last paragraph of Rich's column:
If Heene’s balloon was empty, so were the toxic financial instruments, inflated by the thin air of unsupported debt, that cratered the economy he inhabits. The press hyped both scams, and the public eagerly bought both. But between the bogus balloon and the banks’ bubble, there’s no contest as to which did the most damage to the country.
The problem here, again, is that Rich is comparing two things that should not be compared. I can glibly say that "Just as numerous Americans were fooled by the few hyped instances of shark attacks into staying out of the water in the summer of 2001, so were many Americans fooled by Bill Clinton's initial comments on Monica Lewinsky." The problem is that such a comparison is completely inane and worthless. Rich should stop looking for patterns where none exist. If only his columns were not required to demarcate the supposed intersection between American cultural life and America political life...
11 comments
Poor Frank Rich. There are rules in the mainstream media that separate op-ed columnists from The Journalists and The Editors. The Journalists and The Editors are always careful to parse the world around us in a more dignified, academic manner. Their impeccably reasoned arguments are simply not allowed to compare the pain and suffering caused by the enormous scam concocted between New York and Washington and the teeny tiny scam with the teeny tiny pain and suffering embedded in Balloon Boy. That stuff is for the masses. Yet in my view the mainstream media barely scratched the surface in exposing the manner in which Wall Street, Congress and the Executive Branch created the conditions that nearly toppled the global economy. And have now left tens of millions of Americans holding on by the skin of their teeth. Even while those who caused the catastrophe are back to living high on the hog again. Talk about being disconnected from reality?!! Rich does make important connections between Heene, Main Street and the desparation that motivates some people to do crazy things to pay the bills. But what in the world do the celebrity journalists and the well compensated editors know about that? They may not be as far removed from the pain and suffering as the Wall Street tycoons and their enablers in Washington but I doubt more then a handful have a clue as to what it is like to literally live from paycheck to paycheck, one health calamity away from destitution. What is Chotiner really aiming at here? I think I know. And it's not Frank Rich, is it? george walton
- iambiguous
October 25, 2009 at 2:36pm
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Apples and Acorns
Yes, Bill and Frank may have stretched the bounds of comparison but we like to compare, rank and find patterns in America. I believe that's part of the fundamental problem with more access to more information. It's easier for the purveyors and the consumers to match up and requires a smaller ratio of buyers to sellers to succeed. People who wish to believe ______ may be few and even if it's not true, valuable or necessary there may be enough of them to support an outlet on cable or a site on the web. With five hours a week, O’Reilly is part of the problem as he thunders about sleazy web sites that are unknown until exposes them. They draw the traffic they only dreamed about. The Factor lumps Acorn, a pervert and Dick Morris' strategy of the week into a daily scare without blinking. Then he brags that a couple million (a non-rank for a network program) people demand his product. Passenger or not, the balloon hoax did not demand live coverage for several hours. We may not agree with the comparisons provided but we should question the proportion of time people spend consuming quality information versus the amount of time spent with trash. If we've lost a boundary it isn't necessarily between cultural and political. The sensational has crowded out everything. It is P.T. Barnum, 24/7. Pick your own circus and compare it to something of value that is kicked down the road every day. Sure, any person's two choices for comparison may be "inane and worthless" but only one is dominating the news cycle. For most of an afternoon it was one balloon with one kid. Compared to anything available, that was a poor choice for both seller and buyer of the fiasco. -- michael
October 25, 2009 at 3:06pm
What a crabby post. Isaac, do you really want to grow up to be another Marty?
- purcellneil
October 25, 2009 at 7:21pm
Good for you Isaac. Rich had it coming. The Times is becoming ever more pathetic.
- lsernoff
October 25, 2009 at 8:32pm
Yes, Frank Rich's article on the “balloon boy” was pretty limp.
- jacksondyer
October 25, 2009 at 9:44pm
The mal educated autodidact George Walty is now an "expert" on journalism. This pathetic narcissist is pretty amusing.
- jacksondyer
October 25, 2009 at 9:46pm
"the supposed intersection between American cultural life and America political life" Emphasis and incredulity mine. The trouble with you Chotiner is that you should've been a bean counter. At least on that beat you could've made up for in enthusiasm what you so clearly lack in worthwhile insight.
- I Majorajam
October 25, 2009 at 10:00pm
I thought Rich made some good points in his article.
- ironyroad
October 26, 2009 at 2:00am
I agree with ironyroad: I liked Rich's article and though some of the analogies/comparisons were a bit of a stretch, they weren't that bad. Frank Rich must have pissed someone off here at tnr. He is always criticized on these pages, mostly by peretz but now I see even the sane tnr staff is going after him. I wonder what's up? How does someone get on the tnr shit list?
- MrCookie1
October 26, 2009 at 9:24am
He's too liberal cookie, you know how that makes TNR nervous. I skipped it. I have categorically refused to partake in any balloon boy anything since its first ridiculous appearance in the media maw. I had better things to do, like stare at the wall. Or watch grass grow? OK, drink a Bohemia beer with a lime.
- WandreyCer
October 26, 2009 at 10:03am
Nahh, Isaac is right on Rich. Isaac isn't criticizing Rich's opinions, really. He's criticizing his tendency to draw connections that simply don't exist. It *is* a problem with Rich. I'm in his ballpark otherwise, but I've stopped reading his stuff because it's become increasingly predictable and lame for the reason Isaac mentions.
- jhildner1
October 26, 2009 at 4:26pm