I saw the headline last week on the back of a New York City paper saying something about a hooker (or pimp) copping a plea in the Spitzer scandal. For the first time ever, I began to feel a bit sorry for Eliot.
Always a tough and highly driven customer, I gather he had one of those childhoods that includes wealth, but also a whole lot of baggage to go with it. Apparently, Eliot was always a poor little rich boy, with lots to prove.
Yes, it's obvious he was wrong to do what he did; he was not only sneaky, but incredibly stupid and arrogant in putting all he'd worked for at such grave risk. Certainly, given his position he exposed himself as a total hypocrite. It also didn't help that he'd made such a large number of influential enemies in scaling that mountain of power he'd soon get thrown from.
But I still think the media should soft-pedal all the seamy follow-up detail with the hooker and pimp indictments, as well as what Eliot likes to do and not do in the boudoir. I'd also resist keeping a running tally of his clandestine visits -- and visitors. All this is incredibly tacky, and the truth is, I really don't want to know. Do you?
For me, that haggard, desolate look on Mrs. Spitzer's face two months ago said it all. These people are already suffering. Eliot lost his long-held dream and you can say he deserves it, but do his wife and kids? Please give them -- and us -- a break. We know the fall-out must be reported, but let's not trumpet this scandal from the mountaintops interminably, and in such excruciating detail.
Just as our media can beat a dead horse several times over, so also can they deify certain figures to a ridiculous degree. (As with Obama, it's even been said that they're apt to hold their fingers up to the wind before doing it.)
We were all thankful to hear that Senator Ted Kennedy is in stable condition at Mass General, but on learning this good news, I heard some young anchor on CNN reverently refer to him as "American royalty". Really?
Let's get real: The Kennedys are neither gods, nor angels, nor royalty. Read your history and you'll learn that much. The media has simply maintained a fifty year plus fascination with them, thanks to old Joe's money, Jack's charisma, and Bobby's relative idealism (later in life). Marked by an eerie excess of tragedy and a sort of heroic hubris, they've also tended to make very good copy, which of course draws eyeballs and boosts sales. This always makes media people happy, and leaves them craving more.
Like many others, I admire Teddy's long, steady climb from entitled, playboy runt of the Kennedy litter to preeminence in the Senate, and all he's done for the nation in the process. I also wonder whether Eliot Spitzer will ever be able to approach the same kind of redemption over the years.
Thinking back on how we viewed Teddy before he got the chance to prove himself again nearly forty years ago (a chance, by the way, which others with a different surname would not have received), I can't help but recall in what low esteem he was held in 1969, likely before that fresh-faced CNN journalist was even born. But Ted got his pass, and to his credit, made the most of it. But American royalty? I don't think so.
I also clearly recall that the media then, still blinded by the Kennedy mystique, gave the young Senator a fair amount of privacy as he struggled to reconcile his actions to himself, his family, and country.
With this perspective, I believe we should treat the Spitzer scandal with the same sort of restraint, if for no other reason than we have much bigger fish to fry. Until we get Obama in the White House and implement some fundamental changes in our country's course and policies, it will remain difficult for most of us to believe in the public sector much, so we have to rely more on the media.
We truly need their help on calling our government to task on a wide range of vital issues: jobs, the housing crisis, the environment, foreign policy, loss of civil liberties, and the list goes on.
I don't deny we get reporting; in truth, we get tons of it. We just don't receive much measured, well-reasoned analysis on substantive issues. Instead, I see a lot of pundits yelling at each other from different sides of the political spectrum. And they're all talking at the same time, so I can't understand them.
The McLaughlin Report is a nerve-jangling endurance contest that leaves you deaf. I also witnessed Bill O'Reilly screaming at his producer-about eight times. I then watched some Republican pea-brain on Chris Matthews's program, ranting and raving as he tortuously revealed himself unable to define the word "appeasement", this in supporting a particularly low, inappropriate blow against Obama delivered by our president, on foreign soil yet. (I wonder if W. knows what appeasement means as well -- still you have to give him points for pronouncing it correctly.)
So -- may I request a bit more civility and quality control in our public debates and media coverage? Or have these standards, once taken for granted, disappeared for good from the cultural landscape?
Oddly, when I do find an informative show on TV, I'm usually inundated with ads for Metamucil, Viagra, and some prostate medication. What does that say? Do you have to be over sixty to want to use your brain? But then again, maybe I should be proud of my gradually advancing years as I (dimly) recall the days of Walter Cronkite, Huntley & Brinkley, and Howard K. Smith. Somehow you knew they were pros-maybe because they didn't yell.
The sorry, frenetic state of media today is one reason I look forward to a world where content is fully on-demand (a time not that far off), where you can consume just what you want, when you want. To help make this advance particularly meaningful, there will be experts or "curators" to help people customize their media choices according to specific moods and tastes. So, for those adventurous (or fed up) enough to seize the opportunity, soon there will be better programming -- and improved lifestyle choices -- available, solid information and insight that will be easier to find and access than it's ever been.
Given all that I see and hear now, that day cannot come too soon.