As I sit here in my apartment near La Bastille in Paris, drinking wine and nibbling on some pain et fromage, I can’t help but let my elitist inclinations get the better of me. Gazing down upon the chaotic mess we call politics in “the States,” I consider the possibility of renouncing my attachment to American politics forever. But the media frenzy surrounding the DNC recently is just too irresistible which is why I must make some blogger love to my friend Sarah Haile-Mariam (rising Senior, CAS).

Sarah has been doing a lot of work for the Obama campaign and migrated along with over 100,000 other liberals to meet their messiah this past week, where she also happened upon the wandering talking head Chris Matthews. The video, below, and her response involve elements of American politics from which I am glad to be distanced. (Continue watching past the Clinton/McCain supporter to see Sarah in action on Hardball)

The resonating idiocy of the Clinton/McCain supporter is a sad yet powerful representation of the disease of misinformation. There will always be those who will say anything to get attention, and this woman seems to be no exception. But while these types of people have become more and more prevalent in political discussions, the greater catastrophe is Matthews’ (and what I will generalize to be the greater mainstream media’s) response to the woman. Here is someone who is so obviously stupid, yet Matthew’s manages to get completely owned by her. The woman argues that Obama was classified as a Muslim while enrolled at an Indonesian madrasa (school), then proceeds to marginalize her original implication that Obama is a muslim by maintaining that she never “said he was a Muslim.”  Whether or not she is right about Obama’s classification as a Muslim, Matthews is a constant disappointment, failing to challenge her with anything more than a meek “where did you get your information,” nor calling her out on her undoubtedly intentional (and false) implication.

CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, and major newspapers across the country have been giving us only more of the same.  People like the Clinton/McCain supporter are given their own TV shows (read: Bill O’Reilly, Steve Doocy, Sean Hannity), while people like Anderson Cooper, Matthews, and Blitzer are the only sad examples of reporters left to keep them in check.

A recent discussion panel at the RNC touched upon this issue as well in an argument between Arianna Huffington and Tucker Carlson.  Carlson will always get my love for being a Ron Paul supporter, but here he misses the point.  His claim that there is a need for a neutral perspective in a political debate is valid and important, but not to the extent that views purporting Global Warming to be a hoax, or Obama to be a Muslim, need be accepted.  Arianna doesn’t quite address what Carlson is trying to say, but she makes the essential point that the news media is being flooded with garbage and continues to allow any voice, no matter how uninformed, to gain great influence.  We do need neutral perspectives in the news media, and talk show hosts should allow alternative views to be heard, but we cannot leave people like the Clinton/McCain supporter to go unchallenged and leave it as just “another perspective.”  Allowing these people with “no commitment to facts,” as Arianna puts it, to have such a large pedestal is indicative of utter failure in the mainstream media.

Photo by Moonbattery used under a Creative Commons License.