Metaphor Country: Communications and Politics

Sidestep Left

Am thinking a bit about the shift from center to left -- not for national or geopolitical reasons, but for personal ones.

Which could, in turn, become national or geopolitical.  A question of scale.

In other words, I might be alone in all this.

But I think I'm not.

Imus and the Net: More from the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal's front-page piece today on the fall of Imus (subscription required) highlights the role of Media Matters for America -- and the Internet in general -- in alerting and mobilizing the opposition.

Which means that, contra Daniel Henninger yesterday, the Internet can be a force for civility as well as incivility.

And to my point yesterday, incivility is driven by mainstream media as much or more than new media.

So at the end of the day, it's possible that the Internet doesn't equal incivility.  Maybe incivility is just incivility, and the Internet is just the Internet. 

Radical, I know, to do without ideology.  But there you are.

Beyond that, the lesson for established interests (again) is -- thanks to the 'net, nothing stays hidden for long.  So you can't stall, and you can't delay, and if there's something to 'fess up, better to 'fess.

Side note re: Gov. Corzine's crash -- sorry he had to go through that, but it raises the question -- is Tom Wolfe scripting this whole thing?

Oh, and for Imus -- is there such a thing as a corporate Darwin Award?

Imus, Tim O'Reilly and The New Civility

Daniel Henninger mentions (but doesn't make much of) a connection that's been on my mind -- between the Imus blow-up and Tim O'Reilly's call for a new civility in the blogosphere.

There's definitely common ground -- and some sort of cultural backlash against "anything goes" might be a positive thing.  But let's not overlook the differences. The Internet free-for-all is a grassroots thing.  Sure, maybe it's the end result of the popular culture and if you're conservative you probably want to make something of that. 

But in the case of Imus -- or more precisely, the reaction to Imus -- something else is in play, namely, a backlash against corporate interests.  Now, let's not overstate this.  There are many cans of gasoline feeding the Imus fire (he offends, not just black people in general but a particular group of black people who oh by the way happen to be women and high achievers and role models and relatively powerless as public figures go... and of course there's a long Imus legacy to draw on -- gee, Don, still wondering why the opposition seems so energized?)

But added to that is the sheer cynicism of the Imus play.  It's pretty obvious that while he may be bigoted, he's also bigoted like a fox -- bigotry makes the money flow, and if the money flows, then there's a whole power structure that's only too happy to look the other way.  Note that his gig isn't in jeopardy 'til the sponsorships start falling by the wayside.  And here, I think, is yet another can of gasoline -- namely, that people are fed up with the heavy corporate hand.  People are smart enough and informed enough to know when they're being manipulated -- and the latest from Imusworld makes completely transparent the way the ugliness and the revenue stream flow together.  And in a post-Iraq, layoff-happy, un-health-insured reality...  well, of the many reasons to react to Imus, one of them is that I'll see your verbiage, and raise you your business interests, and wind up, ah, how to say this...  somewhat cross.

Henninger, sitting as he does on the Wall Street Journal editorial board, probably doesn't want to look at all the drivers -- grassroots ugliness is so much easier to see and easier to deal with via the application of a firm cultural hand.  And he might even be shocked (as opposed to shocked, shocked) to learn that corporations are going on here.

In celebration of my new incipient radicalism, however, I'll be glad to keep an eye on this space.