Media Weeps With Joy Over Hillary's Latest "Tears" Moment
February 5, 2008 -- 9:42 AM EST // //
Updated below.
Newsday reporter Glenn Thrush, a good friend of mine, deftly captures in one sentence the ridiculousness of the media's response to Hillary's new teary emotional moment yesterday:
Clinton's eyes -- red from a cold -- welled up, and she wiped them as reporters craned to record a possible tear that never dropped.They craned to record the tear? Well, that's understandable, of course. No journalist could afford to miss such big political news, particularly on the eve of the voting that could decide the next President. That would be a firing offense.
All snark aside, perhaps we should be thankful. To my knowledge the three major networks didn't all lead with The Tear last night, as they did the last time Hillary publicly experienced an emotion that caused her eyes to water for approximately two seconds.
Meanwhile, assorted pundits wept hot tears of joy at having been granted another chance to seize on a trivial and ultimately meaningless moment to insinuate that Hillary's inner Lady Macbeth was on display yet again. Predictably, the Hardball gang obsessed over the moment, with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson telling Chris Matthews that Hillary's tears are caused by "an impending primary. It just breaks her down."
Wow. Really, how did we get to this point? How did our discourse sink to such levels of absurdity and self parody? What happened?
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Update: Obviously, the "what happened" is intended as a lament, not as a literal question. The answer to that question as I understand it is -- I hope -- the daily subject of this humble blog.
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