Ken Bone latest regular guy to get media rectal exam for asking candidates a question

The question Ken Bone asked at last Sunday night's debate was really not all that remarkable. A fairly standard inquiry about energy policy - a good question, to be sure, but usually not the sort of thing that turns you into an Internet sensation. Then again, you know that wasn't it. Nothing so substantive ever is. It was the red sweater and the pre- and post-debate video that got Bone all the attention, along with (let's be honest) his frumpy physical appearance. I guess it was the perfect storm of quirkiness in a season when we'd rather focus on just about anything besides the candidates themselves. The fact that Bone has been enjoying his 15 minutes of fame doesn't excuse the media for giving it to him. And it really doesn't excuse what they're doing to him now. To set the statge, here's how CNN helped turn him into an instant celebrity the day after:

So that was a week ago. A week is an eternity of news cycles, and it didn't take long for the media to get bored with its new Most Important Man In The World and turn on him. Now that they have, it's getting ugly:

Ken Bone ogled Jennifer Lawrence’s “butt hole,” believes Trayvon Martin’s death was justified, admitted to “insurance fraud” and is a fan of kinky “PreggoPorn,” cringeworthy online musings discovered Thursday reveal. The crass-leanings of the red-sweatered internet darling emerged after he was boneheaded enough to use an old alias during an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit — and users were quickly able to mine the coal plant worker’s past postings. Commenting on hacked photos of a naked Jennifer Lawrence, Bone, 34, channeled his inner Donald Trump. “Maybe she should have been more careful with her pics, but the bad guys are still the ones who sought them out and looked at them. By which I mean guys like me. I saw her butt hole. I liked it,” he wrote under the handle StanGibson18.

I don't know why anyone would want to stand up and ask a question at one of these dumbass town-hall style debates. If your question resonates in any way online, you're now an instant celebrity - and it's probably only a matter of time before you too are getting the media rectal exam. You might recall that the same thing happened to Joe the Plumber after he dared ask Obama about his tax hike proposal. Immediately they started digging into his life and coming forward with all kinds of claims about Joe, including one that he wasn't licensed as a plumber. Meanwhile, no one could be bothered to scrutinize Obama's plans to raise taxes, which ultimately had a far greater impact on the nation than Joe the Plumber's licensing status. It's hard to say whether they're now tearing Ken Bone down because he dared to question the powerful woman whose boots they like to lick, or whether they just decided his moment in the spotlight had gone on long enough already. But the next time they claim to give a rip about the thoughts and priorities of normal people, look what they do when one actually steps forward and speaks up. The point here is not to defend anything he's done or said. It's the emphasize once again that the substance of the question is far more important than the social media history of the man who asked it. I'd love to hear a week's worth of coverage of energy policy instead of the circus they usually focus on. And if they think Ken Bone deserves it for relishing his instant celebrity, I'd say they never should have indulged him in that in the first place. While WikiLeaks is telling us more and more about just how corrupt Hillary Clinton is, the media are too busy building up and then tearing down a guy in a red sweater to bother with what we really need to know before we vote.

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