Nobel Decibels

By
Glenn W. Smith
– October 11, 2009Posted in: Media, Politics

clowns 300x221 Nobel DecibelsAn American president wins the Nobel Peace Prize and the curtain goes up again on the Great Vaudevillian Media Exploding Head Follies. Limbaugh’s head goes “poof!” Beck’s goes “shree!,” and even the slightly cooler heads of the New York Times get in on the ridiculous burlesque of responsible journalism. According to the NYT’s Adam Nagourney, President Obama’s Nobel is a “mixed blessing.”

The part of me that can appreciate a healthy cavalcade of nincompoops wishes Roman Polanski had won the thing. According to FOX News, by the way, “nincompoop” was found to be the favorite word of the English in a 2007 survey, so maybe we now know the source of that network’s ambitions.

Let’s be clear about something. We haven’t yet achieved world peace. That means all the laureates — 96 individuals and 20 organizations — were either unaccomplished or simple failures, at least by the lights of Obama’s critics.

In his will, Alfred Nobel committed part of his estate for a prize “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” Any successor to George W. Bush was going to have a head start in a fraternity-of-nations contest. The purchase of a nice globe for the Oval Office and the placing of a few inter-hemispheric phone calls seems like world peace in comparison to Dick Cheney’s international crime spree.

Fact is, Obama deserves this award, and I believe he also accepts it on behalf of the American people who had the good sense in 2008 to repudiate Bush’s global belligerence and domestic neglect. Congratulations, America.

But how do we account for the clownishness of contemporary media? I know it’s popular to rant about media bias, corporate consolidation, elite protectionism and simple laziness, and sadly, the media often earn the criticism.

This episode presents us with an altogether different type of idiocy. Those who imagine or hope for a political downside to the winning of the Nobel Peace Prize are, simply, nuts. Sure, Obama’s political opponents could be expected to find the negative. Had he been nominated and lost, these same Obama-haters would be mocking his failure to win it.

Political journalists who suck the nuts’ helium to earn a float down Celebrity Boulevard have finally lost their  tenuous tether to reality. They are sailing away into a final frontier of foolishness.

Mockery seems the best medicine, but the mental and moral infirmities that plague our media are serious disorders. The American president won the Nobel Peace Prize, you nincompoops. At the very least responsible journalists owe it to the prospect of a safer world to treat the occasion with a little dignity and respect.

But no, such was not to be. These are, by and large, the same media clowns who invented Sarah Palin, only to have Ms. Palin explode in their faces like a trick cigar. Instead of falling back on a lesson from Journalism 101 — accept no trick cigars — they’ve turned the prank into a principle of reporting and see exploding cigars in every circumstance, even Obama’s winning of the Nobel.

As noted above, the world hasn’t yet achieved world peace. Our very existence is threatened by nuclear proliferation and the global climate crisis. The world is in the midst of a financial catastrophe that’s due, in part, to journalists’ failures to look behind the curtain on Wall Street.

If ever we needed the news media to pull the cigars and helium tubes from their mouths and return to the streets with us, now is the time. An idle hope, I fear.

There is no Nobel prize for journalism, and now we know why.

Related Articles:

  • No Related Related

About Glenn W. Smith

Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”

Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.

In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.

As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.

Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.

Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.

As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”