Random Acts of Journalism

I received an e-mail this morning linking to a petition from The Women’s Media Center, which alleges sexism in the coverage of the Democratic Primary.

White women are citing “sexism in the media” as the sole cause of Hillary’s failure to gain the Democratic nomination, which, as i’ve mentioned before, is absolute horseshit… Because apparently racism is a disease we’ve completely cured in this country and every American from cost to coast is jumping with joy about the prospect of a black man holding the highest office in the country. Yup, nobody has any beef with that at all. Not the KKK, not the white-supremacists, not your everyday dinner-table racists, not the Neo-Con mouthpieces on FoxNews…nope, they all love him and can’t wait to call him the leader of their country. Not a single person has said the N-word under their breath. Oh, and they’re big fans of his wife too.

I don’t mean to be rude ladies, but let’s cut the shit. Hillary lost for myriad reasons…one of which is that her husband is Bill Clinton, a former President who while taking credit for the bright, shiny economy (as if one person, a president, could swing the economy of an entire country), played politics with every enemy, buried opponents, shot Tomahawk missiles to distract from sex scandals, got a beej in the actual Oval Office from someone other than his wife, and then lied about it and was summarily impeached…and then couldn’t even bury his own ego long enough to stay on message while campaigning for his wife. Another might be that were she elected, the Bush’s and Clinton’s together would have ruled this country for the last 20 years collectively. Yet another reason might have been that she is a lying, cheating, corrupt and scandalous politician — just like her husband — who used dirty tricks and underhanded gestures to try and win an election with voters who are quite obviously so sick of traditional politics that they voted for the inexperienced black man who ran his campaign like the 6th grader running for student government who promises free ice cream, longer recess and soda in the drinking fountains…sure, he can never fulfill those promises, but it just sounds SO GOOD.

I think the BBC put it best:

“A carefully crafted political cocktail – made with an unyielding and more hawkish position on the war in Iraq than rival Barack Obama’s, a trademark seriousness and lack of emotion, topped off with a fierceness and strength during what became a brutal, dogged fight for the nomination…”

I’ll admit that the media did one hell of a job suckling on the Obama teet (this borders on journo-porn), but Hillary didn’t lose because of sexism in the media any more than Obama won because of a sudden absence of racism.

A woman will be president in my lifetime…i’m sure of it. There is no conspiracy. There is no glass-ceiling for the job. If i had to guess, if either man on the ballot fucks up the next 4 years (they will), i’d say it will happen by a landslide the next time an opportunity presents itself. And i won’t mind…in fact i’ll be ecstatic. A woman should get a crack at the job, she might do well…lord knows we haven’t tried it yet… But the bottom line is that if she’s a good, likeable candidate, the media will treat her with kid gloves. The same way they do with this years good and likeable candidate.

Some good articles to help console your anguish:

Did Sexism Derail Hillary Clinton?
Obama and Clinton – Racism and Sexism
Ferraro Wants Study on Racism, Sexism in 2008 Race
Why Didn’t More Women Vote for Hillary?
It’s Not About You, Hillary
Life After Hillary: Moving on After Your Candidate Loses