Too Many Cookes?

It would certainly be rash to say that the days of media glory are behind us, but something certainly happened with the revelation that the Pulitzer Prize had gone to a fraudulent story. As far as the general public is concerned, this might have been a minor item, a shade less interesting than the revelation that New York’s first lady had lied about her third husband.

But of course the general public as such does not exist. Its unity is actually constituted by common objects of attention, and these are supplied by the media. And the media’s favorite subject is themselves. (Don’t bother checking: that last sentence parses.) For days all we media people could talk about was Janet Cooke. If the President had been shot the day Miss Cooke was exposed, you might not have heard about his wound.

JS

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Joseph Sobran

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It would certainly be rash to say that the days of media glory are behind us, but something certainly happened with the revelation that the Pulitzer Prize had gone to a fraudulent story. As far as the general public is concerned, this might have been a minor item, a shade less interesting than the revelation that New York’s first lady had lied about her third husband.

But of course the general public as such does not exist. Its unity is actually constituted by common objects of attention, and these are supplied by the media. And the media’s favorite subject is themselves. (Don’t bother checking: that last sentence parses.) For days all we media people could talk about was Janet Cooke. If the President had been shot the day Miss Cooke was exposed, you might not have heard about his wound.