Tribal Journalism

I have lost the source of this quote, but I’m going to use it anyway. I read it in the comments of something I was reading and made a copy of it because it so perfectly expressed what I have been experiencing lately. The first paragraph merely provides basis for the second, which is the real crux of the quote. The emphasis is mine.

What sickened me though was flipping between news stations and having to see Hannity et al on Fox News proclaiming to be populist saviors and giving voice to a bunch of people who, although I agree with them that "we the people" are getting screwed, think that we should never pay taxes and that Obama is some socialist demon risen from Hell to eat everyone's guns. Seeing Hannity interview Joe the Plumber was like the icing on the cake.

Then you could switch channels to see Maddow and Olberman yucking it up about how stupid the protesters are and how great the Federal government is--and basically acting like the smug liberal stereotype that the right tries to portray them as. It was all thinly veiled tribalism on both channels, with nary an ounce of critical analysis and thinking.

There is, if you look carefully, an underlying complaint in the “tea bag” protests some unrest that is not about current taxes but about the tax burden that we will be placing on future generations if we continue the spending levels for which Obama is setting precedent. (Well, in fairness, Bush set the precedent and Obama is expanding on it.) This is a valid concern which one side translates to “we should never be taxed,” and the other side mocks and laughs at.

To be critical of Fox News, which Olbermann and Maddow do at great length, while using the same exaggeration, hyperbole and lack of seriousness that the organization you are attacking is engaged in is the definition of hypocrisy.