Digby gets down with Martha Stewart and finds a perverse streak in the media coverage of her trial and conviction:
The tabloid media interest in the story became clear as the week-end went on. They are aroused and tittilated by the idea that Martha Stewart could be forced to endure some sort of prison violence, sexual or otherwise. The gleam in their eye as they speculated about her fate was very revealing. Corporate wrongdoing never made these vultures so breathless and flushed.Our press corps seems to suffer from a strange form of mass sexual neurosis. I don't know why, but time after time they act out a twisted form of immature sexuality when covering certain public figures who apparently confuse them in some way.
I think this helps explain the difference between a story that gets brief mention and one that gets wall-to-wall special coverage. Michael Jackson confuses the media, and threatens their notions of adulthood and masculinity, and so he gets endless coverage; the creepy molester down the block gets a nod in your local paper, but that's about it. Bernie Ebbers is an old story -- he's a heterosexual white male corporate wrongdoer -- so he gets just a few words.
Even coverage of the Bush "AWOL" story fits this pattern. Bush going AWOL is in line with the media view of his character -- he was just a good ol' boy slipping off to have a few parties -- and it doesn't perturb their ingrained view of sexual roles or behavior. But Bill Clinton getting blown by an intern is front-page news for a year, both because Clinton's Elvis-like sexual persona is fascinating and confusing to the media, and because Monica Lewinsky seemed an unlikely paramour. If she'd been a slender, blonde Gentile, the scandal would have been much more muted, I think.
Posted by Chris at March 9, 2004 03:37 PM