Rudy To Become First Prez Candidate To Attend 9/11 Ceremony -- How Will Media React?
August 29, 2007 -- 1:57 PM EST // //
As you all know, this blog marvels regularly at the way the media covers Rudy at 9/11. From the routine granting of counter-terrorism credentials to Rudy by reporters and commentators, to the refusal of pundits to talk about Rudy's hideous Ground Zero gaffe, coverage of Rudy never ceases to amaze and flabbergast.
Now some more Rudy 9/11 news has broken this morning, and it offers another big test for our media to fail in its coverage of "Americas Mayor."
According to The New York Times and the Associated Press, Rudy has accepted an invitation to speak at the Ground Zero ceremony surrounding the sixth anniversary of 9/11. While Rudy has spoken at every one of these ceremonies previously, this is the first time Rudy is doing this as a Presidential candidate -- which means Rudy will become the first Presidential candidate ever to speak at one of these.
This is not a clear-cut case, because Rudy was Mayor of New York, but given the centrality of 9/11 to Rudy's Presidential campaign, he should have erred on the side of decency and skipped the event. And indeed, first responders and relatives of 9/11 victims are already livid about it:
"He's cashing in on 9/11 like it's his own personal tragedy. It's a photo op on a campaign swing for him," said Jimmy Riches, a deputy fire chief whose son was among the 343 firefighters killed.Don't get me wrong. I'm not at all suggesting that there's any chance that Rudy will stop exploiting 9/11 and exaggerating his Masterfully Churchillian Performance that day. At this point doing these things is as natural to Rudy as breathing.Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was also killed, said she was stunned that the city would ask a presidential candidate to speak there.
"They should have every other single presidential candidate then, because this is outrageous," Regenhard said. "This is going to be seen across the country as a blanket endorsement from us. It's totally inappropriate."
The larger question here is this: When will Rudy's naked opportunism around 9/11 become a part of the larger media and pundit narrative about this race?
From today's news, to some other news today that Rudy is actually putting together a group called "First Responders for Rudy," to Rudy's constant mentions of 9/11, to the constant exaggerations about his own performance that day, there's no longer any doubt whatsoever about the broader storyline here.
Yet the usual way the press handles this is to point out that by running on the record of his 9/11 performance, Rudy has opened himself to scrutiny and criticism of that same record. In other words, the press' basic approach here is to see this as a substantive argument about the merits or demerits of his performance -- rather than as a window onto Rudy's character. The few pundits who did weigh in on Rudy's 9/11 gaffe noted that he'd screwed up by insulting the workers -- without making the natural leap to the larger story, i.e., Rudy's exploitation of the attacks. The chore of pointing out Rudy's political use of 9/11 is always left to the angry first responders and 9/11 widows to make in scattered press reports like those today.
Consider, by contrast, how quickly even the most trivial or even false anecdote about Dems can enter the media narrative as a sweeping character indictment. Gore's earth tones? Phony. Kerry ordering swiss on a Philly cheese stake? Effete buffoon. Hillary's southern drawl? More of the same old Clintonian calcuation. Edwards' haircut? Presumed hypocrisy. Yet here we have in Rudy's case not just one individual and meaningless anecdote but a broader pattern that unquestionably tells us a great deal about who Rudy is and what he's up to. Yet nothing -- literally nothing -- will get the pundits to start seeing him in such terms.
Rudy's speech at the upcoming 9/11 ceremony would be a good place to start.
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