Joe Klein shills for his new book "Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid" on CNN sister site Time.com, and--surprise, surprise--clumsily attempts to single out the man responsible for the most successful television news venture in history as the man responsible for the decline of politics:
Roger Ailes was right when he predicted at the beginning of the television era that in the future all politicians would have to be performers. But politicians are, for the most part, lousy performers.Their advisers are pretty awful at what they do too. In the absence of inspiration, they have fixed upon the crudest, most negative and robotic forms of communication. They've made moments like Robert Kennedy's in Indianapolis next to impossible.
Get it? Klein can't hit Fox News for being infinitely more successful than CNN, and for providing unbiased journalism; but he can take a shot at FNC architect (and undisputed political genius in presidential history) Roger Ailes for denying the world more Bobby Kennedys. What?! Please.
Here's the thing about Joe Klein. He's one of those pundits who profits greatly from the system exactly as it is (and makes himself part of that system on CNN every chance he gets) and yet trashes it at the same time. And that's a hypocrisy-dichotomy that'll cancel out any chance of being taken seriously by me every time.
