17 June 2010 | Needs Improvement

Well, it appears that our Media Glitterati are not happy with the speech by President Obama.

Neither Gail Collins of the NY Times, Keith Olbermann or his twin sister Rachel Maddow are impressed. And I suppose that when you are in the media and your job is to bib-dribble, spoon-clang and in general, have all the answers without actually being in position to do anything about, it's all in a day's work.

Our Media Glitterati were clamoring for the president to cry in great heaving convulsions, get furious, and shake with rage as a point of showing that he cared. When he failed to do that, there seemed to be this weird atmosphere (egged on by the media) that Something Needed to Be Done Quickly. There are media reports every night with some other owner of a mom-and-pop business who is suffering, not seeing as many people in the door and laying off employees. You might almost think that an environmental crisis has now become a humanitarian crisis and surely, the president will be moved To Do Something. We have the B-roll to prove it!

So, he makes his speech, and these media fucks boo and hiss that it doesn't go far enough.

I think we're well beyond the point of logistics and straight into political theater. I honestly do not understand what the president is supposed to do--that one act--that will satisfy these folks to meet their nebulous criteria that "the Government is in charge." In all seriousness, I'm rather perplexed. I can think of some things I wish *had* happened, but I'm really at a loss to lay out in explicit detail what those things are. Our Media Glitterati is the same way: they act like they have all the answers and will repeat the mantras "Obama should be doing more, Obama's missing his opportunity," but what exactly does this entail?

That's the problem with environmental disasters: no one expects them and we're often powerless to alter them. Obama can't fly underwater and seal off the well, and the best estimates that BP can do this aren't until August. Sure, I think it's a crying shame all that oil is leaking into the Gulf and that wildlife is threatened, but the media is overreacting to the point of hysteria. Ever try to cap a volcano? This isn't a natural disaster, but fucking around in nature is no guarantee Nature will do what you want when the damage is done.

Not to mention the little issue that all of our reaction to this ("this underscores why we need to quit our dependence on oil!") is a lot of bullshit. Who really thinks that offshore drilling, especially a mile under the water, is "safe?" That's like being confused that "safe bombing" actually got civilians killed. We've all turned a blind eye to it, don't want to think about it, but when the shit hits the fan, we're just uncomprehending how it all ever happened. And we demand quick fixes and long-winded explanations for policies and procedures to prevent disasters that aren't actually in place to begin with. All hyped by the media, of course.

Way to go, media fucks. Way to go.