Author

Topic: Why Schumer Attacked (Read 1063 times)

legendary
Activity: 1764
Merit: 1015
January 26, 2012, 04:11:16 AM
#2
Compelling analysis...
sr. member
Activity: 249
Merit: 251
January 26, 2012, 04:06:17 AM
#1
(In reference to this article by genjix published today)

It is Saturday morning, June 4th, 2011.
It's been weeks of this incessant news coverage. News organizations and comedians alike have been doing nothing but talking about and showing pictures of what may or may not be Congressman Anthony Weiner's Weiner. Congressman Weiner is the Democratic house member of New York, you are a Democratic senate member of New York. He says the photos aren't of him. He says images can be manipulated. You worry about your friend. How is his family holding up with all of this news coverage? How can he be reelected after all of this? Then..
worse.

Congressman Weiner admits he lied.

It is Sunday, June 5th, 2011.
You have to do something. When something like this happens over the weekend, every news organization in the country covers it as the issue of the week. What can you do?
You have to generate some news. You have to give them something to cover besides your friend's private life. Your staff remembers something they saw a week ago in the newsmagazine Gawker: an anonymous site for buying drugs called Silk Road. They get it set up on a laptop and set up a press conference. Almost no one shows up.  (Watch the top video in genjix's article again). They have bigger things to cover. But you go on anyway. Every little bit helps.
You decry Silk Road and Bitcoin, doing your best to distract the country with something new that neither you nor they exactly understand.

You wrap up.
You go home.
You go to sleep worrying.

It is Monday, June 6th, 2011.
You turn on the TV and open the newspaper. You see one thing. Weiner admits he lied.
You are unsuccessful.

The next week, Anthony Weiner resigns.
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