And when you finish the novel, you realize you wasted your 50 cents.
Still, it's good theater. In another class, I've been talking about "headlinese" and why to avoid it. So I guess it's only natural a cliche-filled "headlinese" head popped into my mind that perfectly fits the hyperventilating drama of the day's news.
As the late Neil Postman might have added in times like these: Now ... this.
As Americans psychologically prepare ourselves for tonight's off-again, on-again presidential debates, let's stop and read a story by Politico.com's John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei on the underlying dynamics of the campaign. They conclude, with good evidence to support it, as the dust settles from each "game-changer" of a pyschodrama that has marked the last month of campaigning, "most things have stayed drearily the same." Who's to blame? We all are, they say. Including the media, perhaps especially the media.
Some other bits, pieces and straws in the wind:
Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post, whose roundup of today's media is must reading, given the complexity of today's news. Almost in passing, he mentions a content analysis that documents the gee-whiz, fawning coverage of Sarah Palin:
Now for a new study, unveiled here for the first time, that counters the impression the media have been kicking the stuffing out of Sarah Palin. The Center for Media and Public Affairs says Palin got better coverage than Obama and McCain from Aug. 23 to Sept. 12 -- at least on the three network newscasts and Fox's "Special Report." On the ABC, CBS and NBC programs, 74 percent of the evaluations of Palin were positive, as were 60 percent on the first half of Brit Hume's show (the study evaluated only the first, news-oriented half of Humes's show).
CBS's Chip Reid, for instance, reported that Palin "has earned a reputation in Alaska as a tough and fearless reformer."
By contrast, McCain's coverage was 40 percent positive on the nets and 55 percent positive on the Fox show. Obama stories were 56 percent positive on the networks, and just 29 percent positive on Fox. That means, according to the center, that McCain's coverage was nearly twice as positive as Obama's on "Special Report."
During that period, Palin was the subject of 77 network stories, McCain 71 and Obama 39. Joe Biden: 5.
Alessandra Stanley, writes the TV column for The New York Times, was even-handed, even kindly, about Palin's interview with Katie Couric of CBS News.
The Z on TV column for The Baltimore Sun, written by TV critic David Zurawik, deconstructs the GOP ticket's bad day with CBS as presidential candidate John McCain blew off the Letterman show a couple of days -- and psychodramas -- ago.
Finally, a story with some substance. In spite of the political grandstanding, the ongoing financial crisis is clearly the most serious since the 1930s. A by Liza Featherstone tells how to read the polls on the financial meltdown and why to take them with a grain of salt. The head: "Do We Love the Bailout? Behind the gaps in opinion polls."
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