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version seven. http://demongin.org |
The Death of Professionalism
The real loser in the 2008 presidential election campaign.
Wednesday, 2008-10-08 | Big Media
| No, I think we're witnessing the death of good journalism... |
I haven't commented here on the ongoing Presidential and Vice Presidential debates yet, because I haven't really had anything novel to say.
Here's a novel point: the fact that corporate media is as tolerant as they have been of the GOP ticket's smugly disrespectful conduct is as much an admission of utter dereliction of duty by corporate media as it is of what Canadian journalist Heather Mallick awkwardly dubbed the "White Trash" ticket.
See "Phrasology" for more on how unfortunate it is for a Canadian to have invoked that particular phrase in this particular presidential race.Basically, no one among the GOP or among corporate media is acting like they've got a corpuscle of professionalism in their entire bloodstream. And it's mildly infuriating.
The fact that the day following the the VP debate saw only a smattering of condemnations for the candidate who declared, moments in, that she wouldn't be answering questions that she didn't feel like answering, is a bald admission of failure. We all saw a professional politician who, after having been invited to a media event whose "question and answer" format had been publicly declared long in advance, took the stage and essentially told everyone who organized the event and everyone who tuned in to the event that she didn't care about the time, effort and money that they had invested and that she was only interested in using the stage that they had provided to make statements she was prepared to make. What we didn't see was round rejection of this disrespectful and childish behavior.
Additionally, after the second Presidential Debate, the fact that the headlines and, indeed, the pitch from Big Media was that there was a "draw" between the candidates and that the gloves didn't really come off, etc. What corporate media (and even most independent media) have still neglected to mention, is that you've got a Republican candidate who has refused twice to even so much as look at his Democratic opponent.
It's just unprofessional. And McCain is as unprofessional as the corporate media headline writers who have consistently failed to demand professionalism from the GOP ticket. And the whole thing is offensive.
It's offensive to anyone who swallows his pride and temporarily "acts the part" during the board meeting or the big departmental presentation or on the stage or in whatever venue. Those of us who are trying to get by putting ourselves out there as professionals are expected to do two things, lest we forfeit our jobs:
1.) Professionals are expected to exercise decorum, i.e. do what is appropriate for the situation in which they find themselves.
When the situation dictates that you answer questions put to you by a moderator or that you engage in dialog with an interlocutor, you fucking do it or it's your ass. What you don't do is act like a petulant child.
2.) Professionals are also expected to divest themselves of their personal feelings about their coworkers.
The guy on your left? Yeah, he's a soul patch wearing douchebag with a loud tie who obviously doesn't care about anything that hasn't been soaked in Juicy Couture or tzatziki sauce. The guy sitting to the right of you? Yeah, he definitely believes that the cornflour blue icon is the most important item on today's agenda. The guy in the middle? He's got to act like these guys are his peers--his intellectual and moral equals--or else he loses his job. When he loses his ability to conceal his outrage and act as if these guys were his equals? His ass gets canned like a tuna.
Basically, you've got a campaign refusing to comply with the basic dictates of professionalism and a corporate media whose lack of any kind of professional ethic means that the utter lack of professionalism from the former goes unmentioned and, due to the fact that most people get their news and opinions from corporate media, therefore goes unnoticed by the majority of professional people.
And that offends.
