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08/31/2004 Archived Entry: "Harpers reports on GOP convention before it happens"

OOOPSIEDOODLE! Truth-in-media sorts are in a lather because venerable Harper's magazine reported on the Republican convention before it happened. A piece written, no less, by Harper's' editor Lewis Lapham says:

The speeches in Madison Square Garden affirmed the great truths now routinely preached from the pulpits of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal -- government the problem, not the solution; the social contract a dead letter; the free market the answer to every maiden's prayer -- and while listening to the hollow rattle of the rhetorical brass and tin, I remembered the question that [Richard] Hofstadter didn't stay to answer. How did a set of ideas both archaic and bizarre make its way into the center ring of the American political circus?

And yes, that issue was on the stands and in the mail before the R's even arrived at the airport. The TiM watchdogs note -- rightly of course -- that this is the most blatant proof of media bias.

But what's the big deal? The conventions -- both R and D -- are so tightly scripted, predictable, and full of meaningless rhetorical blather that journalists might as well write their reports in advance, then spend those long, hot convention days vacationing in Bermuda.

P.S. I wish there was such lovely talk about reducing government and restoring the free market coming from the R party. All I've heard so far in speechy sound bites is "Bush good. Kill Iraqis."

Posted by Claire @ 12:26 PM CST
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