http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13532.html
Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
It's hard to say for sure when the "silly season" started in the media's
coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a "serious season,"
it was exceedingly short. I'm afraid I missed it.
But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted
that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but
didn't leave a tip. NPR picked up on the "story," the New York Times
called it a "potentially embarrassing mini-scandal," and Drudge blared
it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the
story.
Clinton didn't leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of
touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals
think about this? Why won't Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is
it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction?
All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out
Clinton's campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire
serving staff. Clinton's individual waitress didn't know that, so there
was a simple misunderstanding.
Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home
in Iowa yesterday.
Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.
"You people are really nuts," she told a reporter during a phone
interview. "There's kids dying in the war, the price of oil right
now--there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who
served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn't get
a tip."
Thank you, Anita Esterday. "You people are really nuts" may actually be
the most helpful and poignant media criticism I've seen this year. It
has the added benefit of being true.
It's also a reminder of just what it takes to get some political
reporters excited. Last week, Rudy Giuliani unveiled a campaign ad in
Iowa with an obvious, demonstrable lie. Many of us begged reporters to
take it seriously, and give it the full-court press.
Some columnists noted the problem, but most outlets followed the AP’s
lead: "No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate
cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about
the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival."
A "dispute," as if there was some question about whether Giuliani had
intentionally lied to voters in an ad.
Was there a media freak-out? Not even a little. A leading candidate
deceiving the public about cancer just isn't sexy enough.
And what is? In recent months, the most prominent media frenzies have
dealt with John Edwards' hair, Hillary Clinton's laugh, Rudy Giuliani's
cell phone, and now Clinton's approach to gratuities.
"You people are really nuts" sums the situation up nicely, doesn't it?
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