Monday 8 January 2018

“She just turned fifty though you’d never guess it!” (Jan. 21, 2014)

21 January 2014 at 11:47 am
“Happy birthday, Madam Mao!”
“She just turned fifty though you’d never guess it!”
Noam Chomsky has commented often on the culture of obedience and conformity in the political class and its vital mass media auxiliary branch. The American political elite in particular, Chomsky says, is almost uniformly supine and subservient; although they have little or nothing to fear from dissenting against government crimes, they have decided instead to become “voluntary North Koreans”, occasionally critical but usually fulsome in their praise of the Dear Leader [1] — whether he or she is named Thatcher, Meir, Bush, Howard, Blair, Cameron or Obama.
In stark contrast to this boot-licking, when it comes to assessing the behavior of leaders of enemy regimes, the worshipful praise for the Obamas and Blairs is replaced by snarling denunciation. Last August, British and American reporters were apoplectic with indignation when the wife of the Syrian president had the gall to act in the same way—i.e., indulging in shopping and fitness fads—as her American counterpart Michelle Obama. “As Syria implodes,” fumed one Daily Mail headline, “Mrs Assad splashes out on chandeliers, Western food and fitness fads.” The paper set two reporters to the task of studying the “bizarre shopping spree” of the “British beauty” who was “holed up” in a “bunker” with the “vile dictator”. [2] The Torygraph also weighed in to the denunciation campaign, with a savage piece of Maoist demagoguery by Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman, who announced grandly: “It’s Asma al-Assad’s Marie Antoinette moment. As world leaders tussle over how to respond to her husband’s alleged chemical massacre, the first lady of Syria posts cheery pictures of herself on Instagram serving food to refugees.” [3]
One early morning in 2007, I tuned in to the notorious Murdoch breakfast TV show Fox and Friends, which in its shrieking and bogus “patriotism” was at that time and probably still is the most overtly right wing TV show in the English-speaking world. There was palpable excitement in the air this day; this was because the crew was waiting for the beginning of a live broadcast of some important announcement by President Bush. Eventually, Washington was ready, and Bush began to speak. First of all, he said, “Good morning.”
Back in New York at the Fox studio, Steve Doocy beamed and said in a sing-song voice: “Good MORNING, Mr President!” I imagine he believed his audience shared his unbounded enthusiasm for and worshipfulness of George W. Bush.
For an example of groveling, shameless, uncritical adulation of political authority, Steve Doocy’s behavior took some beating, I thought at the time….
Flash forward several years, to Monday 20 January 2014. It’s the last item on TVNZ’s One News, an extended puff piece from CBS about the extended party for Michelle Obama’s fiftieth birthday. The celebration included Samuel L Jackson, Magic Johnson, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, and a gruesome-looking couple who might well have come straight off the set of a vampire movie. A closer look revealed that the two were not a part of some zombie-themed stunt, but were in fact the Clintons. The President’s daughters were at the glittering occasion as well, the “reporter” noting with approval that the DJ performed in the East Room until three o’clock in the morning.
Then it was back to the studio in Auckland….
SIMON DALLOW: [beaming] Yes indeed! Happy birthday Madam First Lady! That’s One News for this Monday!
WENDY PETRIE: [beaming] Good evening!
And the Obama-cult is just as strong at Radio New Zealand. This morning (January 21) Kathryn Ryan’s U.S. correspondent was on the line, so of course there was only one topic to discuss….
KATHRYN RYAN: It’s happy birthday to Michelle Obama!
LOUISA SAVAGE: That’s RIGHT! She just turned fifty though you’d never guess it!
KATHRYN RYAN: She’s much more popular than her husband isn’t she.
LOUISA SAVAGE: And she’s far more popular than Hillary Clinton was as First Lady! I think Michelle Obama appreciates the fact that the First Lady is not an elected position. People did not appreciate when Hillary Clinton tried to insert herself into health care policy….

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