There’s an article from some online political rag that has some big dust-up about “hipster glasses”, and it’s really great to read! I don’t really even mean what it’s writing about, which to me is empty-headed and silly, but it’s what you get from reading between the lines that’s great. Basically, this article talks about glasses style (based upon the glasses worn by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney), critiques D.C. fashion, and then shows two sides of a journalistic row, quoting from two separate articles, and makes its own judgment: this part is all drivel to me. If people like glasses: great! Some people have to wear them, so they ought to be happy with them; and if other people don’t like them, well, then they can get stuffed! But this article really does have something substantial to say, and it’s this:
Even these ridiculously superficial political correspondents seem to instinctively know that the information they’re going to get at a White House press room briefing is all spin, bullshit, and propaganda, so they don’t even bother to pay any attention to it at all. No, these guys are busy checking out the glasses frames on the press secretary, and making their style judgments about their relative fashion merits. Oh, and then they’re getting into fights about it all, completely ignoring anything whatsoever said by the press guy in the spin room. Hilarious!
I really don’t see why actual journalists bother going to the White House press briefing room anyway; they already know what they’re going to be told! They seem to live for the moment where they get to ask a “burn” question, and make the guy squirm for a second before he thinks of a new lie, or remembers the talking points he was given. So what’s the point? The press secretary doesn’t know anything anyway, so why ask them stuff? They’re just regurgitating what they’re told to say. And by giving them attention, they’re just encouraging them!
I say ignore them except for stuff like glasses fashion, as these guys did in the attached article! If you want to know something, ask the President, or a member of Congress: if you trip them up, you might get a real answer, because they might actually know something. But you can’t get that with a press secretary: they only know what they’re told to say. (I’m not just bashing Obama’s guys here! That’s all the press secretary ever does: spin and talking points, regardless of party! Remember the Bush guys? It’s just the PR Dept of the government, after all. So why bother covering it? Except of course for fashion!)
Here’s the superficial story, with the endless-looking link:
