Media Creating National Politicians; BP; Glee

A few thoughts this week:

With all this attention on Rand Paul’s Kentucky Republican senatorial primary this week, you can follow exactly how the media – left, right, and middle – creates a national politician. The last example of this I can think of is Barack Obama. (Sarah Palin can be included as a media-created national politician, but she was thrust into the limelight because of her vice presidential nomination; everything that followed, though, can be seen as pure media manipulation.) Today, the Huffington Post calls Paul “The GOP’s New Hope” even though only in America can a possible future leader of a major political party make ill-advised remarks about the Civil Rights Act and defend BP and still come out okay. It seems like the press is just itching to create some interest in the midterm elections, show that they’re taking the Tea Party seriously, and frame the Obama presidency as some sort of competition between left and right.

Speaking of BP, I think the call for boycotts of BP gas stations is a little over the top. If you were going to boycott a company for damaging the environment and our health, you’d have to boycott just about EVERY major corporation. How is supporting another big oil company’s gas production going to help prevent oil spills? Buy a bike or an electric car if you really want to help. A kneejerk reaction like a boycott is about as rational as a Tea Part protest.

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I’ve been really enjoying these last few episodes of Glee. But whenever I see a musical, I just can’t help thinking how random and weird the idea of musicals are. Breaking out into song, choreography with perfect strangers, over-the-top lyrics. Musicals must be part of some deep-down visceral reaction towards music as an expression of something human that can’t be explained through words alone…… That seems to be a really deep and superficial statement all in one. Either way, I have a major crush on the airhead blond Cheerio, Jane Lynch is too funny, and the writing vacillates between très sharp and très groan-inducing. Good, weird show.

The Influencer - New Yorker Profile on Haim Saban

The New Yorker just published a story on Haim Saban, whom I've never heard of before, a cutthroat media tycoon worth billions and a major player in the (dormant?) Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. He was instrumental in bringing the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - yes, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - to my TV screen when I was a kid, and started making his fortune by owning the publishing rights to cartoon theme songs. He's also extremely pro-Israel. There are so many issues to tackle, I'll just list them all:

o The shadiness of the record industry (Saban basically did to cartoon songwriters what white record producers did to black recording artists)
o Tax shelters
0 The rich in America are above the law
0 Israel, especially very Hard Right views
o The Clintons, especially how Bill has an uncanny ability to take money from billionaires
o The tension between Obama, Israel, and the hardliners that are major funders in the Democratic party
o All-American Power Thirst: Media, Politics