Monkeywrenching the political process

[unixronin]

With the popular vote in the just-past election so close, one could be forgiven for wondering how much the election may have been influenced by what amounts to an elaborate practical joke.

Of course, the article points out that the perpetrators observed that the news media could easily have exposed their hoax had they put the least effort into checking their facts.  But in this last election, by all appearances the media didn't WANT to check their facts, as long as the report involved something damaging to the McCain-Palin campaign.  Can you imagine the witch-hunt had Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish chosen Barack Obama as their target?  Ah, but wait, we don't have to imagine — we have the persecution of Joe the Plumber as an example.

When I consider how one-sided the reporting of this past election campaign was, and yet how close the popular vote was, I find it hard to avoid speculating that in this Presidential election, the people of the United States did not elect Barack Obama; the news media did.

Comments

[yndy.livejournal.com]

I'm a little stunned this hasn't been pointed out in your comments yet...
Per the article:

The pranksters behind Eisenstadt acknowledge that he was not, through them, the anonymous source of the Palin leak. He just claimed falsely that he was the leaker--and they say they have no reason to cast doubt on the original story.

So, Eisenstadt may have been their hoax, but there's no reason to believe that someone on staff didn't leak that story.

That said? Yeah, um, anyone thinking that the media had no impact is deluding themselves because they want to.
And I say that having voted for Obama.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Point. I missed that detail somehow.

All I can say is that I hope the reality of Obama lives up to the spin ... but with the near-messianic cult of personality that's been built around him, that's going to be difficult. He could turn out to be a far better president than Bush (let's face it, it wouldn't be hard) and still not get a second term if he fails to live up to the Second Coming level hype that's been built up.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We've got an extensive history of charismatic leaders coming out of the wilderness and hitting all the right buttons on the way to Power.

A lot of those stories did not end well.

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

but with the near-messianic cult of personality that's been built around him, that's going to be difficult.

Yup.

And there's the other issue. Once he completes his first term. Which will be the longest he's ever held one job continuously.

And he's about to hit "his pay grade".