But this morning I relapsed and turned on Today, which never fails to provide endless examples of the transformation of what was once the news into cheap entertainment. My current favorite is Matt Lauer, who hosts Today, and David Gregory, who moderates, supposedly, Meet the Press. Matt Lauer went to California to moderate a debate between the two candidates for governor of that state, and David Gregory went to Florida to do the same with the three candidates vying to represent that state in the U.S. Senate. As much as they would like for it to be, this is not a presidential election. These elections are about people voting on candidates and issues specific to their cities, counties, municipalities and states. So why, I’ve wondered, are these figureheads from national media outlets even involved in these races?
Because, I learned this morning, they’re doing what they do best: manufacturing stories. This morning, Today opened with the “controversy” from Florida. Three people are running for one seat: a Democrat, who is black, a Republican darling of the Tea Party, who is Cuban, and the governor, who is running as an independent, who is white and widely rumored to be a homo. According to many polls, the Democrat is so far behind it’s hopeless, and therein lies our paint-by-numbers controversy for the day: Bill Clinton, who hasn’t been president for nearly a decade, is campaigning for his fellow Democrat, and there are rumors that he advised that candidate to drop out of the race, which would bolster the independent candidate and defeat the Republican. Is that true? Did he really say that? Meredith Vierra had the Democrat on and really showed us her stuff. But, but, she said, there are rumors, and where do you suppose they came from? I’m not dropping out of the race, the candidate managed to say at least four times. The people of Florida will decide with their ballots.
If you have three candidates and one withdraws, there are two options. Either the people who supported the withdrawn candidate do not vote, or they vote for one of the two remaining candidates. Regardless of what Bill Clinton said or did not say, that’s a simple mathematical fact. If Bill Clinton reminded the candidate that his withdrawal from the race would increase the chances of one of the two remaining candidates, so what?
Here’s what. Not five minutes later, Ann Curry sat down with two of the network’s Cub Scouts, David Gregory, just back from his celebrity appearance in Florida, and Chuck Todd, NBC’s blandly snide White House correspondent. Ann Curry wanted to know how things are looking for the Democrats. How badly are they going to lose next week? Then – and this is perhaps one of the reasons that someone who greets people on national television by saying “Hey” earns millions – she brought the chat back to the interview with the Florida candidate. Only by that point the story had morphed a bit and the reference about advice given – or not – in Florida was no longer to Bill Clinton but to The White House. My oh my, I thought, how things evolve in less than five minutes, because had you tuned in at that moment, or had you not been paying attention, I would not blame you for believing that The White House was interfering in state races. And that, of course, makes it a story not about elementary mathematics as broken down – or not – by an elder statesman who clearly knows a thing or two about winning elections but one of national relevance.
