News Media Priorities

David Gregory heads up the NBC election coverage team. White House correspondent for many years, sometimes pressing good questions, Gregory also attained the respect of (was co-opted by?) the White House who had him on stage, dancing with Karl Rove, at a recent correspondents' dinner in Washington.

Gregory, showing his earnestness to cover the election scene, jumped all over the story of John Edwards' admission of an affair, and asked the question, "How will this affect the Democratic candidate's chances?"

Let's see. Former Senator Edwards admits to a brief affair. Senator McCain refuses to talk about his relationship with a young blond woman who traveled alone with him several times this past year and somehow the press has not really had an interview with her?

Well, that's not the same thing . . . .

Neither is the way the Republican members of the Senate applauded when their colleague David Vitter was welcomed back after admitting to buying the services of Washington prostitutes. . . .

No, you see, Elizabeth gained some public attention with her fight against cancer. That means the philandering of Vitter and possibly McCain are minor deals. Their consorts were not in the public eye. That changes the media's priorities.

A cardinal rule of what makes news is that it is about a significant person. Elizabeth is a significant person. David Vitter's wife and prostitutes are not. Neither was that McCain assistant.

This priority is not new.

When we lived in Louisiana, we noticed that President H. W. Bush frequently flew into New Orleans, fouling up traffic in order for his car cavalcade to make its way from the airport into the city and then later, usually the same day, back to the airport. Whomever he visited was not an important enough person for the media to report. His frequent trips were not noted in the national news.

Coincidentally, a high end house of prostitution in the Garden District was closed down. That closing made those prostitutes news. But of course, former President Bush did not visit New Orleans after that so there was no media attention.

During this flap over the Edwardses, Harriet Myers and Josh Bolton want to have a judge (a Bush appointee) postpone their appearance before Congress where like other Bush appointees, they will not remember, or will claim executive privilege, or offer some other excuse for not answering questions. Somehow they are no longer significant persons so the media hardly notices.

The Republican members of the House are trying to call the Democrats back from Congress' summer break because they say the House should pass a bill allowing off-shore drilling. They do not seem to be significant people either because their ploy is largely ignored by the media.

That's probably good because they are now claiming credit for the drop in gasoline prices which happened at the same time. Everyone knows that prices dropped because of people suddenly got serious about conserving gasoline by driving less, keeping their tires properly inflated, and buying cars that use less gasoline. And the oil companies are trying to backtrack a little after being able to brag they had after another record high profit quarter.

But then, we aren't significant persons and the oil companies are not seen by the media as significant persons so all those stories disappear behind the glare of what the media sees as news about a significant person, Elizabeth Edwards, who happens to be married to former Senator John Edwards and that spills over, in their minds, onto the Democrats' prospects in the fall election.

I guess the media's brief flirtation with reporting the truth last week was an anomoly.