What It's About - No,

What It's About - No, indeed, the California electorate seems to get the big picture. Mark Steyn has a great piece, not only on the state of the recall, but on the absolute, crushing, unbelievable detachment of the media from reality.

On the LATimes' double standard on coverage (anonymous sources of Arnold's groping get front-page treatment, after the paper spiked not only named sources on Clinton's little rape habit, but also syndicated opinion on the subject):

"But the lofty ethics bores of American journalism apparently have no problem with opening up their front page for anonymous one-sided accusations of ancient improper advances. In that case, did I mention the time Gray Davis grabbed me by the crotch and whispered in my ear: 'Have you ever had a man tax you up the wazoo?' Or, if the issue is the violent grabbing of anonymous women, how about this? 'He just went into one of his rants of, `F--- the f---ing f---, f---, f---!' He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me until my teeth rattled. I was so stunned I said, `Good God, Gray! Think what you are doing to me!' And he just could not stop.' That's a former staffer of Davis, as reported by Jill Stewart in New Times LA in 1997.

No, the public gets what the LATimes (and Hesiod) don't:

The story here is that California is in crisis. The electorate understands that; its media don't. It's CNN that, while sniffing that this election is a 'circus', runs tedious featurettes on the pornographers, sitcom actors and other fringe candidates. Meanwhile, the public winnowed the 130 runners down to a quartet almost immediately.

Indeed, the only folks obsessed with joke candidates were the media professionals who took ex-London socialite Arianna Huffington's campaign seriously. In last week's debate, Arianna and Arnold bickered constantly. The pundits assured us Arianna had come out on top. The next poll showed her with 0.4 per cent and she withdrew from the race shortly thereafter. So much for media savvy. The only bottom that's an issue in this election is Gray Davis's, and on Tuesday all it will be feeling is the electorate's boot."

As always with Steyn, worth a read.

Posted by Mitch at October 5, 2003 11:05 AM