Anti-Media Media

As I was watching The Daily Show tonight, I was thinking about how more than ever, it seems there are some media types that have really started to tee off on the ridiculous coverage of this election, and the insipid nature of the state of journalism as a whole.

John Stewart usually devotes at least the first segment of his show, every single night, to lambasting McCain, and the media by proxy. I know Stewart has always had an 'edge', but it seems like after the writer's strike ended, he was filled with a different kind of fire, and I like it.

Keith Olbermann is a prominent member of the so-called 'MSM' that seems to be trending harder and harder against the media as a whole, calling out CBS, BIG TIME, for the jimmied up editing of the McCain interview the other night. Also of course, there is his long battle with Bill-O from a certain news channel that Nas protested today for, gasp, racist and biased coverage.

These are two examples of the 'Anti-Media Media', who are a part of mainstream news or pop culture, who consistently criticize others in their own medium.

Rachel Maddow and Arianna Huffington would be another two who are bucking the trends of modern journalism for the pure sake of rationality and truthful coverage.

It's like journalism died around these people over the last few years, and they are kind of standing in the ruins, contemplating just WTF happened.

Without these few, the Hannity's, Limbaugh's, Blitzer's and Katie Couric's of the world would be considered all too normal. (Well, maybe not Hannity)

Lightness breaking into darkness, Jedi vs Sith, pick your metaphor, you get the gist.

Of these, only Olbermann can truly be considered mainstream, with a nightly show on a major network, but the others do their part to squeeze the tiny bits they can into the narrative that is being told.

John McCain might get a largely free ride on his now daily idiocy, but with a handful of names fighting for the issues and reporting the stories that others won't, the ones discussed here and on hundreds of other communities, we may just be able to sneak a little bit of this truth thing into the argument.

With McCain's frequent flubs, there are dozens of opportunities to nail him to the wall. 9 times out of 10, he's probably going to slither past, but every now and then, as with the CBS interview, he's going to get hit, and we have the members of the Anti-Media Media to thank for that.

Cross-posted on Daily Kos under the name Red Star