The Second Time As Farce
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I have been debating whether I should say anything about Pajamas Media’s ridiculous publicity stunt important contribution to the world of journalism. Because it is clearly a publicity stunt and the sort of thing an organization comes up with mainly for fundraising purposes, I don’t want to invest it with very much significance and give the farce more attention than necessary, but there are a couple things worth saying. First, this does say something important about the miserable state of the conservative blogosphere as a journalistic medium, and it also tells us something about the thorough Palinification of the right. Palin was praised and embraced because of her perceved ordinariness, and her lack of expertise was regarded by her admirers as an advantage and a desirable trait, and now we are treated to the journalistic equivalent of Palin’s qualifications for the position she sought. In journalism as in politics, standards, qualifications and expertise are now to be thrown out; average-ness, ordinariness and ignorance are to be prized as proof of one’s authenticity. Like Palin’s pseudo-populism, which actually helps preserve and strengthen the hold the establishment has by making populism idiotic, this sort of “amateur” journalism does more to discredit amateurs and reinforce the pretensions of professional journalists than anything else. Far from marking the beginning of a serious rivalry with such outfits as TPM, this heralds the irrelevance of the conservative blogosphere as a vehicle for journalism.
Perhaps even more significant is the complete misunderstanding of the reaction to Joe the Correspondent, according to which Joe is to be admired because he annoys liberals. Unlike Palin, who really did inspire a visceral and vitriolic reaction among many liberals, the ascendance of Joe the Plumber has generated mostly confusion and bafflement mixed with delight that conservatives are so out of it that they have made such a person their icon. Much as many on the left fervently hope that the GOP is foolish enough to nominate Palin in the next election, they can only be overjoyed that the conservative blogosphere, rather than turning into an effective vehicle for political opposition, investigative journalism or policy advocacy, is turning into a caricature of the McCain campaign by continuing to elevate this man in such a prominent way.
Like the McCain campaign, PJTV’s correspondent decided to go to war with the rest of the media on his first day in Israel. By now I imagine most people are familiar with his call for journalists to be banned from war coverage, following by his pining for the good old days when government propaganda films were the order of the day. Indeed, in light of the Israeli elections committee’s decision to ban two major Arab parties in the forthcoming elections, I wonder if Joe was similarly “reminded” of the harrassment and imprisonment of dissenters that were official policy during WWI or perhaps he also fondly “remembered” the closing of opposition newspapers and jailing of dissenting editors and politicians during Lincoln’s war. Presumably these tactics would meet with his approval–we wouldn’t want to “down” our soldiers, after all.
One of the commenters under the “Joe the Plumber in Israel” heading that you referenced said: ” . . . the left just can’t stand a mere mortal being so presumptuous in assuming he can do what they the selected few, can.” I guess, then, if you had a brain tumor, a “mere mortal” like Joe, who’s also got plumbing experience, would be ideally suited to do the brain surgery and snake out that cranial clog.
I just don’t get the wholehearted embrace of know-nothingism. You know, I’m NOT a consevative, but there is a legitimate (and fascinating) debate to be had regarding conservative ideas.
The embrace of Joe the Plumber by the right is proof positive that ideas no longer matter to movement conservatism. Call it the descent into populism, and populism often founders upon these shoals, doesn’t it?
Yeah, right. Like Chronicles magazine Two-Minute Hate fundraiser with David Frum in place of Emmanuel Goldstein was a great moment in journalism.
Koz, that was what is known as a joke. Good work avoiding the subject of the post.
My mistake. So they really _weren’t_ trying to motivate readers into sending money with the prospect of erasing Frum’s face.
Obviously, it was a fundraiser. It was also an attempt at levity that their readers might appreciate. Anything to say that’s even remotely relevant to this thread?
I agree with you more or less. I think an amateur journalist as a war correspondent could work, but in Joe’s case didn’t. But does this really “say something important about the miserable state of the conservative blogosphere?” That’s a stretch. Presumably you’d like to believe that Chronicles can publish or has published something worthwhile other than not-funny-enough-for-National-Lampoon jabs at Frum (or some other bete-noire).
Fwiw, I think your “Palinification” argument is much better.
I would say that one paragraph of one of Dr. Trifkovic’s columns would be worth more for understanding foreign affairs than a week of PJTV coverage. So, yes, I think Chronicles has published quite a lot that is worthwhile, and this is particularly the case when it comes to foreign policy and international events.
Pajamas Media is one of the larger conservative online operations, and this is one of their most public forays into sending out their own correspondents to report on events, so the limitations and flaws of this undertaking do say something about the quality of online journalism from the right. I took it for granted that conservative bloggers understood that their side was behind TPM and the rest when it came to doing investigative journalism and original reporting, and I think this episode illustrates the gap pretty well. Maybe it isn’t quite so important, but it is something that the “rightroots” should be thinking about very seriously.
I took it for granted that conservative bloggers understood that their side was behind TPM and the rest when it came to doing investigative journalism and original reporting, and I think this episode illustrates the gap pretty well. Maybe it isn’t quite so important, but it is something that the “rightroots†should be thinking about very seriously.
The problem, Daniel, is that PJM is giving its readers exactly what they want.
Boy,
JTP isnt exactly popular with the crowd here, is he ? Btw, why all the hand wringing about this simpleton ?
It is indeed quite a stretch to say that this represents the “state of the conservative blogs” – they are not exactly a monolithic organization. I consider myself right wing and i have read a lot of interesting pieces at PJM, that i agree with. But they are different from HotAir, Instapundit, RightWingNuthouse, Ace of Spades, LGF, Ed Driscoll, NRO etc etc in their own way.
Joe the Plumber is no journalist by any stretch of imagination. But you are all missing the point with PJTV sending this guy to report. Their claim is that they no longer trust any of the MSM coverage that they are ready to send even a non professional to a war zone.
You may agree or disagree on whether conservatives are right to be suspicious of MSM, but you miss the point that they simply dont trust their formulaic coverage. Or the notion that the MSM is not biased towards the Palestinian perspective.
What this does truly reflect is how partisan and divided this country truly is.
gsmart,
Name 5 people that you have read at PJM, their latest posts and how they give what their “audience wants.”
As though other political blogs represent fair and unvarnished opinion !
NRO doesn’t trust MSM coverage either, but during the hottest part of the Iraq conflict they had an actual journalist embedded there – one who died doing his job. Obviously, I’m no fan of NRO but I note they have remained conspicuously silent on the deployment of JTP.
JTP mourns the passing of a more rah-rah press…..I think he sees himself as playing the Wiliam Bendix role in some old “Flying Tigers” type flick. As performance art, Joe is great.
“Palin was praised and embraced because of her perceved ordinariness, and her lack of expertise was regarded by her admirers as an advantage and a desirable trait…average-ness, ordinariness and ignorance are to be prized as proof of one’s authenticity.”
I’m not sure what you are claiming here. I presume that it is that the vast majority of those who praised and embraced Palin did so for the reasons you mention. But this is just false. Palin was embraced primarily because she is adamantly pro-life, secondarily because she has lived a life that inspired many people, and finally because she was perceived to be a reformer. I am quite sure the majority of her supporters thought her lack of expertise was not a good thing. That was, in fact, generally agreed to be her biggest weakness. Some of us just didn’t think it was a disqualifying weakness.
I would also like to register my objection to the link to the League of the South website. (A Lincoln-Marx-Hitler connection? Please.) You’re a better man than that, aren’t you?
Name 5 people that you have read at PJM, their latest posts and how they give what their “audience wants.â€
Heh.
1. John Rosenthal – “Dubious UN ‘Expert’ Misrepresents Guantanamo – Again” – Because there was never torture at Gitmo and KSM says everyone there is a card-carrying terrorist.
2. Stephen Green – “Is Time Rooting For Israel’s Defeat?” – Probably not, but hey, lookee what even I say in my PJM article:
“Everyone has their biases — here at Pajamas Media, we wear ours proudly on our sleeves.”
But give the people what they want? Never.
3. Roger Kimball – Annals of Global Warming – record cold proves you environmentalists carping about climate change have been dealt a stunning defeat. And Pravda is an eminently reliable source, because it reinforces something I think.
4. Pam Meister – “Obamamania in Overdrive.” Obama will be teh end of America. Also, he’s like Lady Di.
5. Bob Owens – “Pro-Joe: Plumber’s Trip to Israel Scares the Establishment Media” – Worth the price of admission for one line alone:
This results in gross incompetence, such as the multiple media accounts that have labeled M825A1 155mm artillery smoke shells as offensive chemical weapons.
Because Joe the Plumber? He can identify M825A1 155mm artillery smoke shells at 150 yards, by sight.
So, to sum up: Media bad. Joe the Plumber good. Obama bad! Israel good! UN? Bad! Global warming? Good! Or bad. Or something.
As you yourself note, this is run of the mill for political blogs (besides this one Daniel, which is why we keep coming back…) But let’s not pretend PJM is simply doing a public service by sending Professional Regular Guy Joe the Plumber over to Israel to report. He’s all over the f*cking Web site – he’s their damned mascot. He represents them, and a certain way of thinking – that expertise is overrated, let’s just bring in the average guy with his folksy common sense and then we’ll REALLY get to the bottom of things. Or sink to it.
Gsmart,
Sorry but you took my question too literally – any one can go to PJM and pull 5 random articles or more and say that they have read PJM.
Since you have taken the pain to read these articles ( I presume) can you please tell me what you disagree with ? or how these articles are meant for those people who “want to hear” what they like ?
I generally try not to be platitudinous when i criticize left wingers – but unfortunately its not something i have come to expect from others.
While we are on Joe The Plumber, lets not forget that he had his enitre tax history scoured simply because he dared to criticize the Messiah.
But here we have a future Secretrary of the Treasury who has not paid Medicare and Social security taxes for 4 years – a fact that came out not from the MSM – but from the Obama vetting team stung by the criticism of the Richardson flop.
So let me review – a fricking plumber’s tax returns were illegally scrutinized ( which lead to the sacking of a senioor official in Ohio) while a Treasury Secretrary who owed 4 years of SS and Medicare taxes was not even touched – until the Obama team itself released this embarrassing information.
This is the state of the liberal MSM and I will take PJM coverage any day over the nonsense that is today’s “mainstream journalism”
That anyone would defend PJM is scary. Conservatives are in for a long cold winter until these types come to their senses or move on.
PJ is pure trash, and frankly, anti-american trash at that, in that the interests of the US are clearly subjugated to the interests of Israel.
Let PJM do what it does and let its supporters eat it up and think it’s somehow different from what those on the other side of the fence are consuming. As with any number of partisan sites we could name – they start with the conclusions and flesh out the logic afterward.
What do I disagree with, nagee76? How about, to start, the notion that The Plumber “scares” teh dreaded MSM. The MSM don’t find Joe frightening – they find him execrable. To bitch about the media’s supposed bias and then waltz in their with your own f*cking bias is not objectivity.