| ||||
|
Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body  MediaMothers Who Think News People Politics2000 Technology - Free Software Project Travel & Food  Columnists
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - Also Today For a full list of today's Salon Media stories, go to the
Media home page. - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Salon Columnists - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon Media Alt Media Column Column Alt - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Cokie Roberts for president! | page 1, 2
Yet unlike, say, Ross Perot, Forbes has made little of his story of inheriting -- sorry, running! -- a magazine to reinforce his outsider/businessman status. Indeed, Forbes' new series of early ads (available online) do just the opposite, filming the candidate in black-and-white on an Oval-Office-like set. The ads do include now-familiar anti-Washington rhetoric and call for a flat tax "that looks like it was designed by a normal human being" (Forbes may have inadvertently spotted such a person, as a child, on a birding expedition). But visually, and more powerfully, they reposition him as an insider for credibility: Not only do they not say, "Steve Forbes is an outsider magazine publisher," they effectively say, "Steve Forbes is already president of the United States." And why shouldn't Forbes downplay his media background? It hasn't much helped former Nashville Tennessean reporter Gore, who brags about his ink-stained past to come off as a regular working stiff but has thus-far played the Washington press like a warped banjo. And as a profession, journalists have done a pathetic job of translating our allegedly sweeping influence into political power: Historically, generals, lawyers -- even, or especially, farmers -- are way ahead of us, and candidacies like William F. Buckley's 1965 New York mayoral run are better media springboards than political ones: Buckley launched "Firing Line" the next year. A prominent media figure may well make a serious White House run someday, but it's hard to imagine who: Picture, for instance, George Will eating barbecue. More mediagenic figures, on the other hand, risk charges of superficiality. More plausible is a mogul candidacy: Ted Turner occasionally floats the tantalizing idea of a loose-cannon bid. But while the CNN founder's role in the Time Warner empire would raise huge conflict concerns, his money might be his greater asset, given that the man who once said Christianity is "for losers" is perhaps one influential American who becomes less electable the more access he has to cameras. In Italy, TV magnate Silvio Berlusconi did become prime minister in 1994, but in the land of the five-second government you're more likely to be elected PM than get a parking ticket. But one thing George has taught us -- no, I'm serious -- is that politicos make more successful media figures than journalists make political figures: That magazine alone now gives ink to Coulter, Paul Begala and advice columnist Alfonse D'Amato. Which may be a good sign for Coulter, who seems to be using her media moment in the only really practical political way: to get a brief visibility boost without getting tarred as -- ick! -- a journalist. Is Connecticut man enough for Ann Coulter? Maybe, maybe not, but one suspects she's not too chicken to ask it for a date.
- - - - - - - - - - - - Sound off - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
