TV news gets down and dirty in GOP race

If you landed on Earth last week and turned on the TV to find out what was going on, you’d think that the most important event in the entire world was the South Carolina Republican Primary. You’d believe that the future of humanity hinged on the outcome of this race, which featured a distinctly unimpressive group of men. Further, you’d believe that Newt Gingrich had a chance in hell to become president of the United States.

If you stayed tuned, you’d see story after story about Newt’s second ex-wife (is that the one he left after her diagnosis of MS, or the one he divorced after her diagnosis of cancer?) dishing the dirt about her former husband. She says he wanted an open marriage after fessing up to his affair with Calista, the third, and current, Mrs. G.

If you watched the Republican debate last Thursday night instead of doing something useful like cutting your toenails, you’d see Gingrich’s raging-bull impression, charging the media head-on, steam coming from his ears. It seems it’s the media’s fault that all this unsavory information is being publicized about Newt. Yeah, the media is causing all the unpleasantness. Pawing the ground, growling (and offering the best possible defense), Newt went on the offensive, excoriating the press in general and CNN moderator John King in particular for proffering such a disgusting and inappropriate line of questioning.

If you stayed tuned in, you saw clips of Sarah Palin adding her two cents’ worth, agreeing that the media is at fault, engaging in “the politics of personal destruction.” And if you needed even more affirmation, former candidate Herman Cain said he applauded Gingrich’s attack on the press.

If you got your news only from TV or the Internet last week, you were treated to an orgy of sensationalism. Gingrich used the camera and the public taste for media-bashing very well indeed. He neatly deflected attention from the facts of his life, and who can blame him? A longtime serial adulterer, a lobbyist, a dissembler and a self-aggrandizing buffoon, he doesn’t stand up to scrutiny of his behavior, his values or his character.