VP speculation "massively moronic"
Chris Lehman is absolutely right about the media's bizarre obsession with guessing the Vice Presidential nominees:
[LEHMAN] The reporters and editors who are composing these inane pieces are pretty much talking to each other. I saw a Washington Post headline the other day, “Who’s No. 2? Obama Keeps Everybody Guessing.” No—the “everybody” in that construction is you. Imagine if you were covering the baseball playoffs and you wrote that there was massive speculation about who was going to win. It’s manifestly moronic because you’re writing about a scheduled event that is going to take place on a known timeline. You’re contributing nothing. It’s the opposite of news; any useful public information is entirely missing. But that’s the way the press bubble operates. Not only do reporters write about what they’re talking about, but they’re writing about each other. Notice the passive construction in these stories about “rampant speculation” and ask yourself, “Who’s doing the speculating?” It’s the reporters who are; most voters, being sane people, might think about it for a second but then they move on to the next thing in their day.
I'm all for spirited debate about who ought to be vice president, but I'm sick to death of the guessing games. It's more intellectually stimulating to guess how many jellybeans are in a jar.
There isn't enough quality information available to sustain an informed discussion. If we insist upon grasping at straws, we put ourselves at the mercy of campaign flaks and rumors.
I own this headline: "Biden: 'My time'"
Just so it's on the record.
Posted by: aeroman | August 23, 2008 at 12:47 AM
NBC News confirms that Joe Biden is Obama's VP. As appropriate, you can collect your winnings in the office pool, or from whom you made a wager.
Posted by: Norman Costa | August 23, 2008 at 04:13 AM
The speculation was so stupid, and went on for so long
Even last night, on CNN, Larry King was interrupted for "Breaking News"...that Obama would announce the decision on Saturday morning.
To me, that wasn't breaking news at all. It was information that the actual news would be breaking the following morning.
Posted by: The Phantom | August 23, 2008 at 10:51 AM
I believe it should properly be called 'broken news'. Or brokedick news. Whatever; it fits.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | August 23, 2008 at 08:09 PM
Count the number of jellybeans on the bottom row. Multiply by the number of rows. There's the best guess! Then, stop speculating.
Posted by: superdude | August 24, 2008 at 12:30 PM