Absolutely Out of My Mind
Phil's Mental Musings
Gotcha! Our National Obsession With Fault Finding
25/05/08 10:20 Filed in: Politics
Examples of our "Gotcha!" approach
to politics and public life in general abound, but this past week's
media feeding frenzy over Hillary Clinton's remarks about Robert
Kennedy's assassination provides a clear and disappointing case in
point. As you may recall, Ms. Clinton was being interviewed in
South Dakota and was responding to a question about why she was
staying in the nomination race when the math is against her and
despite arguments that she was risking party unity. Her reference
to RFK's assassination in June of 1967 was as follows:
Question: “You don’t buy the party unity argument?”
Mrs. Clinton: “I don’t because, again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just don’t understand it and there’s lot of speculation about why it is.”
Within minutes of her remarks, reactions were flying around the Internet, blogosphere and mainstream media outlets. Most of those reactions were highly critical, suggesting that Ms. Clinton had said she was staying in the race in case somebody assassinated her rival, Barack Obama. The operative assumption by the media lynch mob was that they knew what was in Ms. Clinton's mind and the motives behind her remark. They didn't and they don't. Nobody knows that except Ms. Clinton. In response to the media furor, she later explained what she meant. You can either believe that explanation or not, but let's not pretend that any of us knows the truth about what was in her heart and mind at the time.
By the way, I am not a Clinton supporter, although I regard her as a highly intelligent and capable person who would make an excellent president. And I am not attempting to defend her. What I am asserting is that our media culture (and many of us, as well) judges others in the blink of an eye, does not afford them the benefit of the doubt and generally seems to relish the opportunity to throw stones. We seem less concerned about listening to our public figures and trying to understand who they are and what they are saying than we are with splashing our defamatory remarks across whatever forum we may possess.
Many call America a "Christian nation," yet we seem to ignore one of Jesus' most salient admonitions: "He among you who has not sinned, let him cast the first stone." Should we heed these words, that would leave everybody out of the stone-throwing gig, I suspect. Truth be told, most of us have contemplated the terrifying possibility that Barack Obama could be assassinated by some crazed racist or attention-seeking nut job. When Ms. Clinton spoke about RFK's assassination, she evoked this thought in many of us, not as an original idea but as one that echoes the fears many of us already harbor in this regard.
We can tell ourselves some story about why she said it, what her intentions were and what all that says about her as a person. But unless we live inside her head, our stories in this respect will be theories only. Not facts.
Question: “You don’t buy the party unity argument?”
Mrs. Clinton: “I don’t because, again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just don’t understand it and there’s lot of speculation about why it is.”
Within minutes of her remarks, reactions were flying around the Internet, blogosphere and mainstream media outlets. Most of those reactions were highly critical, suggesting that Ms. Clinton had said she was staying in the race in case somebody assassinated her rival, Barack Obama. The operative assumption by the media lynch mob was that they knew what was in Ms. Clinton's mind and the motives behind her remark. They didn't and they don't. Nobody knows that except Ms. Clinton. In response to the media furor, she later explained what she meant. You can either believe that explanation or not, but let's not pretend that any of us knows the truth about what was in her heart and mind at the time.
By the way, I am not a Clinton supporter, although I regard her as a highly intelligent and capable person who would make an excellent president. And I am not attempting to defend her. What I am asserting is that our media culture (and many of us, as well) judges others in the blink of an eye, does not afford them the benefit of the doubt and generally seems to relish the opportunity to throw stones. We seem less concerned about listening to our public figures and trying to understand who they are and what they are saying than we are with splashing our defamatory remarks across whatever forum we may possess.
Many call America a "Christian nation," yet we seem to ignore one of Jesus' most salient admonitions: "He among you who has not sinned, let him cast the first stone." Should we heed these words, that would leave everybody out of the stone-throwing gig, I suspect. Truth be told, most of us have contemplated the terrifying possibility that Barack Obama could be assassinated by some crazed racist or attention-seeking nut job. When Ms. Clinton spoke about RFK's assassination, she evoked this thought in many of us, not as an original idea but as one that echoes the fears many of us already harbor in this regard.
We can tell ourselves some story about why she said it, what her intentions were and what all that says about her as a person. But unless we live inside her head, our stories in this respect will be theories only. Not facts.