Plumber-turned-reporter
I was having a conversation with a friend a while back about the troubles facing the publishing industry, and I said that the new internet economy would require a lot more promotion on the part of authors/writers. I said that it’s going to be hard for authors to get the word out while maintaining their sense of dignity. In other words, the economy may force authors to become attention junkies who push the envelope on getting the word out. Such hard sales, I postulated, might be necessary to get book contracts, etc. since margins are so slim these days. As an example, I mentioned the fact that Joe the Plumber landed a contract to write an autobiography. While real authors struggle with agents and publishing houses, someone in publishing got the bright idea to approach Joe the (unlicensed) Plumber and offer him a lucrative book deal.
Evidently fame, no matter how it’s earned, also qualifies one to be a foreign correspondent, as Samuel Wurzenbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, is now working as a journalist in Israel for a conservative media outlet. When talking to some real journalists, he told them that neither he nor they should be there:
“I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting,” Wurzelbacher said. “You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity,’ well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”
It’s funny because his words, delivery, logic, and substance remind me a lot of our outgoing President Bush:
“I’m in the bunker, I’m sitting there angry, outright furious, that I’m letting this terrorist dictate what I’m going to do because they’re firing missiles,” Wurzelbacher said. “It was fear at first, then outright anger, and then me wanting some kind of retribution. I’m not a person that runs from things, but when it’s a missile, you run.”
I can just imagine him saying, “War on Terr-ah, war on Terr-ah” over and over, with “nu-cu-ler” thrown in from time to time. If someone is willing to pay him to be there, I guess he’s got as much right as anyone else. The rest of us will just have to sit back and take comfort in knowing that those who buy his book and listen to him report are the same people who thought Sarah Palin would make an excellent president.
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But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
I am actually speechless. I have too many questions trying to get out and they all start with profanity. And I read this on Huffington:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/11/joe-the-plumber-files-fir_n_156978.html
Okay. Just one coherent thought, sort of.
The fact that this “conservative media” is exploiting the vapid fascination people seem to have for these pseudo celebrities who… uh, have no real good reason for being celebrities (Paris Hilton, for example) is acceptable. Fine, everyone does it. But the fact that people are dying and they send this ridiculous idiot to be their voice of journalism, that is not acceptable. This isn’t entertainment. To make light of what’s going on in Gaza is horribly irresponsible even for a hack media outlet – I guess I have to admit that I don’t know what American public thinks any more… Do things really need to be dumbed down for the public to grasp the news? An obviously unintelligent man who may or may not even be a plumber but claims to be one, who is pathetically so simple minded that he sees this as “when someone hits me, I’m going to unload on the boy” – he’s the one informing the public?
Great. And he’s not as funny as Palin.
This must be a proud day for American (cough) journalism.
A media-manufactured “everyman,” Joe the Plumber, has now become a conservative news reporter covering the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
In a way, it is absolutely fitting that Joe the Plumber is now a journalist. He ironically symbolizes the state of the so-called US Fourth Estate as an institution.
And in some ways, it would be appropriate if CNN or Fox News did hire someone like Paris Hilton to be a lead news anchor or political correspondent.
One salutary side effect of all this is that the more the Mainstream American media declines in influence and legitimacy, the more that alternative media (including blogs) can gain a greater voice.