Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
When "I Hate Myself For Lovin' You" Joan Jett was on George BigLongGreekName's show, The Hour, I didn't think that was going to be the topic, but it was. Apparently Joan was a big Howard Dean supporter and was there the night of the "scream". At the time that Dean was hooting and hollering, it was right for that moment. She thought nothing of it. It was entirely appropriate until CNN and FOX said it wasn't. In context Dean did nothing out of the ordinary. But played out of context, perception = reality.
Some are comparing this second "crying" to Dean's "screaming". And from all the people condemning Hillary without even seeing the video and putting context to it, it could well be.
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The list goes farther back than that. Remember Al Gore's "sighing" and "eye rolling" during the first debate with GWB in 2000? I watched that debate, and I can tell you that there was precious little that was out of the ordinary. It was a scandal manufactured by spin doctors and the media.
Another, lower-profile example: Democrats in Minnesota held a memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in the middle of his re-election campaign in a plane crash. It was a tasteful and appropriate ceremony (I watched it--not many actually did, but I was living in Iowa and it was pretty big news) which made some references to politics--you know, because politics was what Wellstone's life was about. A day or two later, GOP talking heads start wagging their fingers about how "inappropriate" it was that the Dems "turned a Memorial service into a political rally." Suddenly, that was the story, and Walter Mondale (Wellstone's replacement on the ballot) lost to Norm Coleman, who's been one of the most underachieving Senators in the entire Senate.
One of the things that makes politics such a circus in the U.S. is the attention of the 24 hour news media, which is a decidedly double-edged sword. They manufacture stories, distort facts, take events out of context--and what's worse, half the time they don't even seem to realize they're doing it. These are the same jokers who were telling us McCain was "done" just a few weeks ago. Now he's a "frontrunner," in spite of having no money and with only 8% of delegates decided.