Christopher Hitchens, �No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton�
If you go to The Caravan, you might notice a sticker on the cash register that says, �She�s not your girlfriend, it�s just your turn� which pretty much sums up the Caravan experience. That same slogan, however, might apply to Christopher Hitchens and his writing subjects. After all, he has already written exposes on Henry Kissinger and Mother Teresa. Clinton is just an excuse to talk about somebody who actually got a little sex.
To Hitchens� credit, he only skims over the sexual side of Bill Clinton, and for two reasons: One, his indiscretions in the bedroom pale to atrocities committed in public, and two, we already know all about the sex.
After All the President�s Men came out (the movie, I mean — the public didn�t care fuck-all about the original stories from which the film came), journalism schools exploded. Everybody wanted to be the new Woodward and Bernstein. Newspapers, to their credit, attempted to welcome this new direction, leading to a heyday of investigate reporting.
But investigative reporting is hard work, with few rewards. These stories take time and money, and have the danger of being irrelevant by the time the reporting is done. Plus, we are a litigious society, and when you go after the big boys in business and/or government, they are the most likely to have the armies of undead unholy lawyers.
Finally, investigate stories are difficult for the average person to digest. To put this in perspective, remember that Watergate happened and was reported on BEFORE Nixon was re-elected, something people tend to forget. It�s easy to understand a fire. It�s even easier to report on sex.
And that�s the problem with most investigative reporting these days — they focus on the fire and the sex. This is a double-edged sword. The sensational aspects sells papers and gain viewers — I�d say more people know about Clinton�s cigar than his three uses of cruise missile attacks against foreign countries.
What�s worse, says Hitchens, is that all three strikes coincided with a Wag the Dog style distraction against his mounting (joke!) impeachment hearings. Is this true? I can�t say, because every paper I was reading only talked about the sex? And why? Because sex is easy. Foreign policy is hard.
The thing is, the media still expects people to be incredulous about what is reported. But as dumb as we are, we know when we�re being served unimportant fluff. The problem is we do read it, and the ratings or sales go up, and so they think that�s what we really want.
Well, sure we want sex. I want sex right now, but my girlfriend is at work, and I�m typing out these damn reviews anyway. Hanky panky of public officials others is not something we as a general public get too riled up about. Never have. Did you think Jackson�s dealings with his slave women were new revelations?
But the media only looks at aforementioned sales and ratings, and they continue to shovel it out. Remember when The Los Angeles Times announced they were working on a bombshell that would resonate throughout the entire California Recall election? When the story finally broke, it turned out that Arnold had busy hands. And nobody cared, electing him by the same margin he originally commanded.
I think if the media went with the original story that threatened to break, the one about how he may have violated his visa agreement and used undocumented workers in his construction business, people may have paid attention. Instead it was treated as an afterthought, and now that Schwarzenegger has gone back on his word to investigate the charges, nobody cares. And why? Because it�s not that important.
This may start some arguments about the patriarchal society that allows this to happen, but listen — the time to nail people on harassment charges are when they happen, not when they are in positions of high power 15 years later. But that�s a different argument, and you can buy me beers (or a boat), and I�ll be happy to debate the finer points.
Besides, you�re so cute when you�re angry. I�d hate to miss that.
What I can�t figure out is why the media continue to think these sex escapades will bring about a huge downfall. It won�t. After all, if we weren�t able to get rid of self-righteous mongers like Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker for their indiscretions, why would we care about Clinton? Clinton never told us not to do it!
And they�ve tried it again and again. Clinton. Clarence Thomas. A handful of crappy movie stars. Strom Thurmand. So if you want to find out why Clinton was fucked up, I�d suggest this book, rather than the Starr Report.
