WhatFinger


The bubble

You do realize, political class, that nothing important depends on who the White House press secretary is



I'm not saying it shouldn't be covered at all. We covered it. I'm not claiming no one in America knows the man's name or face, because obviously some people do. And I suppose there is some news value in understanding whether the White House is functioning smoothly or not, although I'm not sure much of what we think tells us that really does. Having said all that, the coverage orgy of the political class over the resignation of Sean # as press secretary reveals a lot (and nothing good) about the self-involved nature of the Beltway crowd and the national political media.
They are forever fascinated by the comings and goings, and the inside baseball, that never stops in Washington - all the more so if it involves someone they deal with on a regular basis. If it's all about them, then you need to hear about it 24/7, even if it has nothing to do with you or your life. And that's the real issue I'm having with the massive hubbub over #'s resignation. The identity of the person who stands up and performs daily press briefings at the White House is not important in any way to the things that affect people's lives in this country. It has no effect on the GDP growth, on job creation, on energy production, on the affordability or quality of health care, on national security, on infant morality, on poverty . . . I think you get the idea. # is going to be replaced by someone else who will say the same things he said - perhaps more effectively, perhaps less. That won't matter either. The Trump Administration will continue to make policies, the news media will continue to say whatever it wants to say about them regardless of what the press secretary says. Your lives will be affected or not affected in exactly the same way. Indeed, the Trump Administration has shown an inclination that I hope it fulfills to cancel these briefings, or at least to stop having them on camera. These are not occasions for anyone to learn anything or gain useful information. They've devolved into little more than a show, with reporters trying to corner the press secretary into saying something that damages the president and the press secretary merely trying to get through it without falling into the trap.

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I would probably not be very good at the job. I would tell them all to bite me, which is probably not that different from what the president himself would say, and you'd surely hear all about it. "Trump press secretary to reporters: 'Bite me!'" It would be the biggest story of the week, just like #'s resignation is the biggest and most unimportant story of this week. By the way, have you ever worked for a perfectly well-functioning company in which someone quit because he didn't agree with something? Someone new was selected, life went on. If you're interested in all the palace intrigue, or you're the kind of person who's "just fascinated by this stuff" and can't get enough of it, OK, fine. I don't care. Enjoy all the drama. But don't try to tell me there is any real news value to it, and understand that this is not a partisan complaint. I want the news media to cover real policy substance, or possibly quit their jobs and be replaced by new people who are actually competent to do so. I have wanted this for a long time and I've said so regardless of who was in the White House. Of course, there is a far greater inclination by the media to play up the drama when it makes a Republican administration look dysfunctional, and this is where I'm sure they'll say, "They don't need any help to look dysfunctional!" But are you sure about that? Do you remember when Obama's first press secretary was replaced by his second one? I bet you don't. But it happened somewhere along the line, as happens in every administration. It's not usually treated as a big deal, because it isn't one. One of the media's tricks in covering the Trump Administration is to hyperventilate about things that happen in every administration, but that they never thought were all that important before - like travel bans, or meetings with Russians. This is not to say that Donald Trump never does anything unusual. Obviously he does. But once you're convinced he's an unusual president, you can be made to believe that everything that happens is bonkers, even when some of it happens all the time and you just didn't hear anything about it until now. So a guy who stands up at a briefing that no one but political junkies watch will no longer be doing so. If that's news, it's pretty small news. Unless you judge big news to be hot gossip in the circles where you run, and not things that really affect people's lives. Then again, if you're not smart enough to cover those things then I guess you go for the gossip.

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Dan Calabrese -- Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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