Rolling Stone: McCain The "Make-Believe Maverick"

Story is here.

Everyone is rightfully focused on McCain's behavior, but what is getting lost amid the backwash of nepotism and narcissism is how easy it is to co-opt the media. While some may not want to see politics covered in the hagiographic way that sports commonly is, you still have too many reporters who are overwhelmed by the power and import of what occurs in Washington to the point that they become emotionally invested in the fates of those they cover/use as sources and the tendency, just as human beings, is to not scrutinize them as intently as a good reporter should.

There is also a kind of reflective narcissism going on, as reporters write for a living and thus are always looking for an angle for a possible book. They hope the people they cover will be significant just so they can say they regularly covered that pol (Chris Matthews, for example, who is a notorious name dropper) during some significant juncture in history. In other words, the prominence of a pol also reflects, for a reporter, on their own importance in the media pecking order. That makes reporters, as in sports, part of the star maker machinery behind the wannabe popular pol, to twist a Joni Mitchell lyric.

Any pol who realizes this psychological dynamic can easily own those who cover them, especially if the pol is from a political dynasty (Kennedys, Bushes, etc).


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