When Nancy gives you the look
I thought House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was going to blow her Botox top last night when Rep. Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar from the House chamber in front of a nationwide audience. We all know Nancy’s as political as they come, but this is one grandmother in pearls who knows how to sear through steel with just one look. That’s all it took.
Good observation. I didn’t catch the glare while I was listening – I probably looked away for a moment.
Here’s my beef, though, about the entire heckling episode. Once again, the media is obsessed with the sport of the matter rather than the substance. CNN.com posted a long story not long after the speech ended about whether Wilson behaved appropriately, that others in his party had criticized him, that he apologized (or was going to apologize) to Obama, ad infinitum, and today, the same types of stories are all over the airwaves.
I thought Obama’s speech was insightful, courageous, forthright and, as usual, delivered with grace and finesse. Still, shouldn’t the story after the speech and today be:
– “Why does Wilson say he’s lying?”
- “what in the various proposals floating around leads him to believe aliens will get access to Obama’s proposals?
– “Is there anything in the reform proposals that specifically bar aliens from buying into a pooled government-run plan?”
- “Should there be?”
- “Is anyone advocating that we just let aliens die if they arrive at the emergency room in dire condition?”
I know I can dig for these answers on various Web sites and summaries of the various proposals, but most Americans won’t – they either don’t care or choose not to make the time. They’re getting their news in sound bites. So, how about a proposal that hard news journalists get to the core of an issue sooner rather than later. Yes, the Wilson outburst was a story. But lawmakers throughout the world get raucous when they gather publicly, and, frankly, I think raucousness if more interesting than a standing ovation after every sentence.
As Obama said the day before his speech during Walter Cronkite’s memorial funeral, there is a dearth of real news today:
“… And too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed. “What happened today?” is replaced with “Who won today?” The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters. We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should –- and that has real consequences in our own lives and in the life of our nation. We seem stuck with a choice between what cuts to our bottom line and what harms us as a society. Which price is higher to pay? Which cost is harder to bear?
“This democracy,” Walter said, “cannot function without a reasonably well-informed electorate. That’s why the honest, objective, meticulous reporting that so many of you pursue with the same zeal that Walter did is so vital to our democracy and our society: Our future depends on it.”
Amen to that.
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