Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Ariana Huffington's Journalistic Role Confusion

On May 5, 2008, Ariana Huffington posted an article, "What John McCain Told Me, and What It Says about How Far He's Fallen." In the post Ms. Huffington lists a number of extremely embarrassing and quite damaging statements that John McCain allegedly made to her. She says that he told her that he didn't vote for George Bush in 2000, and that he even talked about being John Kerry's running mate in 2004. Egad! Senator McCain staff naturally rebutted these remarks and in effect said that one needed to consider the source of them. Of course, Ms. Huffington replied in a similar manner. The war of words between Ms. Huffington and Senator McCain’s staff went even further. Earlier today, Mickey Kaus of Slate quoted McCain aide Mark Salter as calling Huffington "a flake, and a poser, and an attention seeking diva." Forget the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, or even the presidential election, here is the real news story.

The confusion I refer to in the heading of this post is that Ms. Huffington is supposed to report the news, not be the news. But then again, one wonders whether Ms. Huffington is a "reporter" or a "celebrity." To call her a "flake" is possibly carrying things a bit too far. Aside from Senator McCain's apparently poor judgment in confiding critical issues to Ms. Huffington, the question remains as to how Ms. Huffington sees her role in the midst of this political chaos. She seems intent on wrecking as much havoc as possible on Senator McCain's campaign for presidency. This alone would not disqualify her from being a journalist. Maureen Dowd, of the New York Times, has been continually sticking a verbal pitchfork into Senator Clinton . It appears that Ms. Huffington needs the spotlight shining on her so that the people of this country can see the vital role she is playing in safeguarding their future.

So as the campaign to become the president of the United States chugs along three things have become evident: Senator Obama has Reverend Wright hanging around his neck like a Gila monster; Senator McCain has Ariana Huffington carpet bombing his campaign; and Senator Clinton has a whole host of people who intensely dislike her, urging her to quit, with the esteemed columnist from the New York Times running at, or near, the front of the pack.

4 comments:

Acrimony said...

And through all this chaos, I have to tell you, this is probably the most exciting election so far in my lifetime. Purely from a history standpoint I just want to sit back and watch this whole thing unfold.

Neil Benson said...

I agree that it is an exciting election. It is long overdue for a woman to be running for president of the United States when so many other great nations that had woman prime minister's years ago. I wasn't sure that I would live to see the day that a black person would be a viable candidate for president. It's a shame they're running against each other for the Democratic nomination. Maybe by the time Ariana is finished with McCain he will decide not to run, and Hillary and Obama can run off against each other.

Anonymous said...

And, just to try and make things more exciting you have Ariana going back to the year 2000 to find something about McCain, such as he did not vote for Bush. Give me a break. Can't she find anything more exciting than that? This election is becoming more and more convoluted all the time! Sounds like a free-for-all!

Anonymous said...

"a flake, and a poser, and an attention seeking diva" Giggles! As soon as we hear her name on one of the networks, we switch the channel. I agree with talisman -- I've never felt so excited about politics before in my life!