The Reality Candidate

The Reality Candidate

Scott Brown was a model; Al Franken was a comedian. Liberal blogger Mickey Kaus is planning to challenge three-term senator Barbara Boxer in California; noise has been made about a possible Glenn Beck run for office. Going all the way back to Ronald Reagan, our entertainers have been our politicians.

On one hand, entertainers who enter public office have unique abilities to connect with voters and are generally unprecedentedly skilled at pushing a message. People like Reagan are notorious for being popular with voters, and their show business backgrounds give them a certain celebrity that voters long for.
However, more and more instances of pre-made celebrity in candidates can have horrifying effects, in terms of policy.  Electing people who already have American fans outside of the political realm can turn elections into popularity contests and result in policy written by Paris Hilton-like media darlings.
Politicians who were originally elected for political reasons are not blind to the benefits of celebrity. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his wife have appeared on a slew of reality shows after he left office, poising him to potentially move past his former ethical indiscretions and run for political office again. Tom Delay, the one-time Republican leader, appeared for a short run on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, seriously broadening his national name-recognition, although, at the same time, turning him into a talking show farce.
Becoming a reality show celebrity can be a cheap way for struggling politicians to win votes. However, stunts like these can lose them political points, and, in the long run, flood the American government with under-qualified, yet popular, pseudo-celebrities.

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Grassroots?

Grassroots?

Many campaigns claim to be propeled by massive 'grassroots' movements. But what differentiates between this all-hailed grassroots and the corperate movements, scathingly refered to as 'Astroturf'? 

'Grassroots' is defined as "the common people at a local level" by Princeton's web dictionary, while 'Astroturf', or 'Astroturfing' is "The disguising of an orchestrated campaign as a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion", according to Wikipedia. No one wants their movement to be known as Astroturf, so these corporate campaigns are usually very well covered up. 

The controversial 'Tea Party' movement, an anti tax protesting/letter writing movement, is hailed as a magnificent grassroots movement by some and deplored as an Astroturf debocle by others. The 'teapartiers', as the movement's participants are called, say that they are part of a completely locally-driven, grassroots movement, and that the 'Tea Parties' sponsors like FreedomWorks and Americans For Prosperity are simply event organizers and nothing more. 

However, bigger corporations than these activist groups are supporting the 'Tea Parties'. Fox News has and continues to promote the Tea Parties and their goals, and some of the channel's anchors have said that to participate in the protests would be to 'celebrate with Fox News', according to Glenn Beck. 

Grassroots means without corporate sponsorship on a local level. Therefore, the Tea Parties are not grassroots.  

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Friday Feature: Glee and Political Correctness

Friday Feature: Glee and Political Correctness

When your musical dramedy's characters are referred to as "wheelchair" "Asian" "other Asian" "gay kid" or "Aretha [Franklin]", you have jumped over the lines of political correctness. Fox's Glee is about as blunt and politically incorrect as a show on a mainstream channel can get- and American audiences love it. Glee is popular, critically acclaimed, and talked about- everything a news channel wants to be. News and news commentary, however, are traditionally politically correct and unbiased. Would moving the national conversation in Glee's direction- making it less politically correct- be a positive change for news media?

There would be less talk of elitists or the 'liberal media elite', certainly, and there may be a slight profit increase for some of the more sterile stations, because controversy sells. But would the loss of professionalism and respect be worth it? Fox News seems to have taken the jump, as its stars like Glenn Beck pride themselves in their blatant political incorrectness. "...the politically correct world we live in, a world where, you know, I can't even show a picture of a missing student because he's Egyptian, 'Oh, don't. What? You hate all Arabs?' No! It doesn't allow you to publicly talk about stereotypes or sensitive questions about age or race or religion. You can't even say anything about it or just ask an honest question," says Beck.

However, the insensitivity and unprofessionalness that would be projected by the media if they were to move towards a more Glee-esque conversation would be extraordinarily detrimental to America's image. The small financial gains would not outweigh the serious turn to bias and rudeness by the overall news media.

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