The Jog has noticed over the years that the stewards of the press often write the news before it happens. On television certain templates and narratives are placed over live events that serve to shape it in ways that play most to the strengths of the personalities bringing us the stories. If reality ever breaks out in such a way that it cannot be confined by the rules placed on it by the storytellers- the anchors and location reporters rebel and demand that the story be squeezed back into the predetermined narrative.
Before getting to our !EXTRA! study case,Ron Paul, let's create a standard for proof of this rather brilliant Jog thesis. The video below takes us back to the jokers who recently paralyzed the city of Boston. As you'll recall their street advertising for the Cartoon Network was mistaken for a series of bombs placed around the city in an attempted terrorist strike.
The two guys turned out to be performance artists who decided to use their first press conference after being released on bail as a stage to do a performance piece. The Jog will let the audience decide if what they did was cool, stupid, or whatever. That's your call. The point we're interested in is the attitude of the gathered press corp once they realize these guys have jumped off the playbook.
The horde gathered around the microphones has covered this type of story a hundred times and they know how people in this situation should act. Rather than cover the real story- which is that two performance artists from Boston decided to have fun in a very serious situation, they instead start complaining that the weird duo aren't playing their roles properly. These two guys are ruining the story they've already written.
Check it out:
Cartoon Network Press Conference
From time to time the Jog will publish the most egregious examples we can find of the press ignoring stories simply because they don't fit into a predetermined narrative. We'll also use this feature to pass along boneheaded moments of all sorts from the TV sheep.
!EXTRA! Eye on Media
Dispatch #1 Ron Paul Vs. Fox News
The surprise story of the Repub debates is Ron Paul from Texas. The most reasoned and persuasive anti-war candidate running this year is not debating Democrats he's debating fellow Republicans in the Republican primary. The Jog disagrees with Paul on the war but we believe in fair play.
Unfortunately, his wild popularity at all of these events is being willfully ignored by the media. The Jog believes they could be missing a big story. Ron Paul may be building a new libertarianism within the party simply by proving how popular his ideas can be when given voice at this level.
Here's a sample of the kind of noise that he kicks up during the Republican debates:
Ron Paul- Bring 'em Home
You'd think the idea of a Republican candidate getting rounds of applause for extreme anti-war positions at a Republican debate in front of a Republican audience would be news! But Fox has been actively ignoring the fact that Paul continually wins their in-house polls asking viewers who they think won the debate.
Check out this clip where Sean Hannity completely blows off Ron Paul's overwhelming victory in the Fox text message poll following NH debate:
Ron Paul Wins Fox Test Poll
Into the next morning Fox continued to marginalize the results of their own polling because it didn't fit their narrative. The crew from Fox & Friends is just beside themselves with embarrassment for their viewers who continue to insist by overwhelming numbers that Ron Paul is winning the Republican debates.
Fox Chatheads Aghast at Ron Paul's Appeal
It doesn't matter whether Ron Paul is a plausible candidate. He is resonating with mainstream Republican audiences with a radical libertarian message- and that's a story. It's just not the story the press showed up to cover.
