The media ignored that particular story, but it wasn’t long before another individual turned himself in from the comfort of his own computer. For the past couple of weeks the latest non-news distraction piece has been, of course, a hot little congresssman’s close-up crotch shot. In spite of the fact that he’s supposedly some kind of rising star with the Democrats, one who was (and perhaps still is) being buffed and polished to run for mayor of New York City, he was so taken with his dick’s star quality that he sent a picture of it to a woman he’d been talking dirty to online. Then he lied about it for a week or so. Then, “choking back the tears,” as the reporters described it, he confessed that he had in fact sent her the picture and then some.
For a few reasons I didn’t follow the story very closely. It’s not because I’m above a good crotch shot (trust me, I am not) but because these stories have become so formulaic that they’re boring. I want to hear something about one of these fools exploring something kinkier, maybe a couple of women at once, or a man and a woman, or maybe some sex toys, or a … dog. But doing something slightly nasty on the downlow – but neither down nor low enough – and then confessing tearfully and then a million pictures of the just-fallen hero with his wife? Something tells me that that sort of thing and then some goes on all up and down the street I live on.
There are a few things about the story, though, that I would like to say.
The first is that it was only mentioned by one of my Facebook “friends.” While that group is hardly representative of any specific demographic, I thought it was interesting that, with one exception, there were no status updates on the whole tawdry tale. The one person who did mention is interesting, I think: She’s a former “major-market” anchorwoman. She couldn’t shut up about it, actually, nor could her “friends,” many of whom chimed in, and many of whom, I noticed after clicking around a bit, either used to work for television stations in large metropolitan areas or still do. Journalists, in a word.
The second thing I thought was interesting was that the night the confession was made, I tuned into CBS Evening News, which I have not watched since Katie Couric set out to become the next Oprah. I was expecting a full-blown blast on the story, but I was shocked nearly speechless by the fact that the story was the third item on the lineup, one that did not come on until after the first commercial break.
Which brings me to the third thing I thought was interesting about the story. The new anchor, Scott Pelley, formerly of Sixty Minutes, concluded his coverage of the non-news story with a question I thought was very good, one that, to me, is what we should expect from the anchors of national network news programs, but that, given the PR people's takeover of the news business, borders on extraordinary.
He asked the correspondent why (besides having a nice big photogenic dick – my words, not the anchor’s ) the congressman is considered newsworthy. Why, he asked, should we care about him?
He’s very significant, mewed the nodding correspondent. He’s a mover and a shaker, mentioned and considered and looked to for this that and the other. But more significantly, he critiques Obama from the left. The left counts on him for that, the correspondent proclaimed. He’s an ally of the left. I don’t know about you, but I don’t count on anyone whose wife is a senior staff member of Hillary Clinton’s operation to criticize his wife’s boss in any way more significant than sending some naughty pictures out across the innernets. Of course, in that context, it is kind of perfect.
