Our Pavlovian Press

Media heads exploded all over America last week in response to Gen. Wesley Clark’s Jun 29 Face the Nation comments. TPM posted an excellent compilation of the pre-July 4th fireworks here.

Jamison Foser at Media Matters has the play-by-play on the media’s “knee jerk defense of McCain,” explaining:

. . . the media is on the verge of declaring any criticism of John McCain off-limits -- even when it isn't really criticism. Even when you call him a "hero," but not quite enthusiastically enough.

Conservatives using what Digby described to CAF readers as The Art Of The Hissy Fit have housebroken the news media. "[T]hey've been fixed," as Grover Norquist might say. They are so classically conditioned that they don’t even need to hear the bell ring anymore before their heads start exploding. It's a disgrace.

Digby had more on Sunday about dealing with media hissy fits:

It seems to me that the smart thing to do is to relentlessly work the media on their ongoing, decades long sycophancy to McCain and his manly deeds. It's far more embarrassing than a short-lived trip on Obamamania ever was. I don't see why this should be a one way street.

I agree. Two can play this game. Except, I'd rather see the media work itself relentlessly.

As talking heads frothed this week, all that was missing were the rent garments and self-flagellation. It called to mind a Bible story right out of an episode of Survivor. Elijah throws down against 450 prophets of Baal, to see whose god could set fire to their animal sacrifice.

As Elijah mocks them, 450 prophets of Baal chant and rant and cut themselves with swords all day, until they exhaust themselves without generating a spark. Elijah thinks, “This is too easy.” So he has his wood doused with water before calling down fire that consumes his offering, winning the contest.

My point? The media, especially the conservative media, has been conditioned to respond with unthinking, ritual outrage to any perceived slight against conservatives, particularly McCain. Instead of fighting their “decades long sycophancy,” as Digby suggests, why not use their Pavlovian conditioning to provoke them further? Weekly. It’s so easy, Wes Clark did it by accident. How much forethought would it take to do it on purpose? To jerk their chains repeatedly, to stir up tempests in their teapots, then sit back like Elijah and watch as talking heads rant themselves into irrelevance, burning themselves out, and more importantly, their viewers and their advertisers.

Seriously, how many viewers can stand watching this nonsense nonstop for more than a few weeks before changing channels? How many advertisers will stand for it?

I'm just saying.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future