Media Obsession With John Edwards' Hair Continues

Monday, July 09, 2007

I received a note from Justin Cole at Media Matters about 20 minutes ago, letting people know about two new articles they published relating to the mainstream medias unending obsession with John Edwards' haircut. I thought it was amusing at first, but now it's become downright disturbing in light of all the serious news happening in the world, and the also-serious issues that Edwards is campaigning on.

Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) broke with President Bush recently on the Iraq war, embracing withdrawal without committing to a plan of any sort. He likes the idea, he just won't sign onto it yet, it seems.

Media Matters decided to break out a stopwatch and find out how much time each of the 24-hour news networks spent talking about Domenici's break over the war, and time spent discussing Edwards haircut. I expected Fox to bury the Domenici story because it doesn't fit with their narrative. Neither does the public polling showing 70% of the country supporting at least timed withdrawal.

As expected, Fox News topped the list, spending 16.4 minutes talking about Edwards haircut during prime time on July 5th, a story that wasn't even a story when it happened but was incessantly repeated and written about by Ben Smith of the Politico - repeatedly linked to from the front page of the Drudge Report - and laughed about from the pillars of News Corp for weeks on end.

It didn't matter what was going on in Congress, the West Wing, in in other parts of the world. The number one story coming from the right over the past few months has been Edwards hair. You can speculate endlessly about the reasons why, I personally believe that the right fears John Edwards more than any other candidate. In what typically is the typically solidly red state of North Carolina, my current home, John Edwards leads all Republican presidential candidates in head-to-head matchups, often leading by margins exceeding those of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.

Fox News only spent 1 minute and 40 seconds on the Domenici story, second only to MSNBC's 1 minute and 20 seconds. For their role in all of this, MSNBC appears to have been calling plays directly from the GOP's play book, spending virtually the same amount of time on Edwards as did Fox, playing the role of beauticians for 15.4 minutes.

Tucker Carlson, MSNBC's lowest rated host spent the second most time talking about Edwards' hair, about 5 minutes, coming in just behind Hannity & Colmes, who went for 5 1/2 minutes on Edwards while spending no time whatsoever on Pete Domenici's defection.

The heroes of this story appear to be CNN, who collectively spent 11 minutes talking about Domenici, and just 45 seconds Edwards.

Apparently, this latest gossip disgrace was inspired by a Washington Post editorial by John Solomon. The divergence in talent at the Post couldn't be more stark when you have Solomon writing 1300 words regurgitating a fluff story from the far right that happened months ago, and the superb reporting by Dana Priest over the past two years, winning a Pulitzer prize for her reporting on the CIA's "rendition" program which flew enemy combatant's from United States custody to overseas countries where they were allegedly tortured.

I find it likely that Priest will win another Pulitzer for her reporting on the unsanitary conditions of the Walter Reed Army hospital.

Solomons claim to fame is scoring an interview with the person who cuts Edwards Hair, according to Media Matters - I refuse to read Solomons piece so I have no idea what was done or said.

This is what I've come to expect from Fox, and the Politico, but I really thought MSNBC would be above such a ridiculous circus. A day doesn't go by when more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians are slaughtered in Iraq, and a staunch Republican Senator switching sides to oppose the war is big news, even if Domenici is simply jockeying for a tough coming reelection campaign in light of his involvement with the U.S. Attorney firings - a deeply unpopular scandal with voters.

Resources: The Haircut siren song; MSNBC, Fox News devoted far more time to Edwards' haircuts than to Domenici announcement

Topics: John Edwards, Fox, MSNBC, Washinton Post, John Solomon

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