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For some time now, I've been writing about the Gramscian concept of "hegemony" and a "war of position"/"culture war" to control the cultural institutions that in turn shape our "common sense" understanding of things. It's my contention that for the 30-40 years, extreme cultural conservatives have been waging a one-sided culture war of precisely this sort-a culture war to control cultural institutions. And in response, moderates, liberals, even progrerssives have basically been asleep at the switch. I've also argued that while all the extreme conservatives' plans have produced impressive institutional successes, the realworld results have been utterly disasterous, which puts us on the cusp of a potentially historic realigning election.
A large part of my disappointment with Barack Obama stems from his unwillingness to confront the conservative establishment. But it's more than that: Obama is genuinely hostile to the notion of others engaging in such confrontation. He insists that the problem is partisanship per se-on both sides. This simply is not so. Logically, of course, it could be so, if the left had been fighting the same sort of well-coordinated culture war that the right is figthing. But historically, this simply did not happen.
Comes now the British newspaper, The Telegraph to provide dramatic truth that the culture war has been one-sided-and to remind us of why Obama dares not tell the truth about this. The Telegraph has produced a list of "the 50 most influential political pundits" who "help drive the national conversation and shape public opinion."
It is not a perfect list, by any means. Any number of influential people have been left off the list, while some who are on it seem rather over-rated, even from the perspective of simply having influence for whatever reason. Still, it seems generally accurate in terms of the distribution of influence across the political spectrum, and in that regard, it is quite telling. Here is the list, without the accompanying explanations:
1. Karl Rove
2. Chris Matthews
3. Sean Hannity
4. Rush Limbaugh
5. John Harris And Jim Vandehei
6. Matt Drudge
7. Tim Russert
8. Jon Stewart
9. David Brooks
10. Mark Halperin
11. Stephen Colbert
12. Bill O'Reilly
13. Keith Olbermann
14. Chuck Todd
15. Bill Maher
16. Glenn Beck
17. Andrew Sullivan
18. Frank Luntz
19. Donna Brazile
20. Joe Klein | 21. David Gergen
22. Dick Morris
23. Mike Allen
24. Laura Ingraham
25. Michael Savage
26. Arianna Huffington
27. Pat Buchanan
28. James Carville
29. Ron Fournier
30. Peggy Noonan
31. Juan Williams
32. William Kristol
33. Roland Martin
34. Howard Kurtz
35. Joe Trippi
36. Newt Gingrich
37. Eugene Robinson
38. Michael Barone
39. Dee Dee Myers
40. Tony Snow | 41. Mark Shields
42. Bill Bennett
43. Paul Begala
44. Jeffrey Toobin
45. Fred Barnes
46. Mark Levin
47. JC Watts
48. Paul Krugman
49. Mary Matalin
50. Rachel Maddow |
It's worth noting that three of the top four voices from the left side of the spectrum are comedians. The fourth is a career sports commentator, whose show includes a fair amount of what can only be called "cultural fluff." Then again, perhaps that's all to the good, since the only other entries from the Democratic side of things in the top 20 are Donna Brazile and Joe Klein, taking up the last two slots. This is indicative of how thoroughly liberal and progressive voices are excluded from positions of media influence.
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It's not till the second half of the list, at #26, that we get our first actual left-side intellectual-Arianna Huffington. Huffington, of course, would not even be on the list, were it not for her rise to prominance on the conservative side, before the shock of seeing the actual fruits of Newt's revolution helped open her eyes.
There is not another left-side intellectual until Paul Krugman at #48, and Krugman, too, is only accidentally on the list: the Times hired him primarily to write about globalized, neoliberal economic matters from less of a starry-eyed fannish perspective than Tom Friedman. But then a band of pathological liars took over the government, and Krugman's professorial attention to stuborn facts swiftly re-sorted him to the extreme left of the nation's op-ed pages. (See, for example, his book, Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan, about the outrageous snow job of Bush's massive, budget-busting 2001 tax cut.)
Close behind Huffington, at #28, we get James Carville, who plays a caricature of himself. (His more sober side-kick, Paul Begala clocks in at #43.)
In short, it's almost as if the Telegraph were preparing my lecture notes for me.
To get a more detailed feel for what I'm arguing, let's take a closer look at the top of their list, and see where these people came from, and how they got where they are:
1. Karl Rove. Not just a career partisan operative, but a known criminal, whose fancy footwork allowed him to escape prosecution in Plamegate. How many perjurers get a timely heads up to change their stories-and are allowed to by supposedly "relentless" prosecutors?
2. Chris Matthews. The epitome of the Versailles Dem, whose only purpose in life is to praise Republicans in a vain attempt to become their friend so as to not appear "partisan."
3. Sean Hannity. Raised from obscurity and groomed assiduously by Fox News. He was directly hired by long-time top GOP operative, Roger Ailes.
4. Rush Limbaugh. The most direct and immediate beneficiary of Reagan FCC's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. With the Fairness Doctrine repealed, the way was opened for the rapid expansion of one-sided talk radio, completely unhinged from the reality principle. And Rush was the poster boy. Extensive documentation of his lying about a wide range of issues by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting served to blunt his early 1990s attempt to penetrate the highest levels of TV influence at the time, and his foray into sports broadcasting proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's no Keith Olberman, but somehow, here he is!
5. John Harris And Jim Vandehei. Co-founders of Politico.com, which, as Glenn Greenwald clearly documents in Great American Hypocrites is almost entirely dependent on The Drudge Report for driving its traffic, and thus making Harris and Vanderhei Top 5 material. They came from the Washington Post, but their funding comes from Robert L. Allbritton, scion of a wealthy rightwing banking and media family. Harris co-authored The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, which included the claim, "Matt Drudge rules our world."
6. Matt Drudge. Speak of the Devil! As if Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh weren't proof enough that peddling lies is no impediment to making the Top 10! Drudge's early rise to prominance and influence was heavily dependent on repeated promotion by Rush Limbaugh.
7. Tim Russert. More than anything, Russert seems to be a weathervane, clearly indicating how totally conservative forces dominate the elite Versailles media landscape.
8. Jon Stewart. Coming from Comedy Central, Stewart richly illustrates the continued relevance of the Court Jester tradition-the truth can only be spoken in jest. The Jester, in turn, is an example of the Trickster archetype. He is the exception that proves [tests the limits of] the rule.
9. David Brooks. A classic example of the ulta-partisan rightwing noise machine alumnus (Washington Times, Weekly Standard) given the highest profile platform in the supposedly "liberal" New York Times. Note the sharp contrast--#9 vs #48-between the rightwing hack, Brooks, and the Princeton economist Krugman, an isolated liberal voice also from the Times.
10. Mark Halperin. Co-author, with John Harris, of The Way to Win, which included the claim, "Matt Drudge rules our world." Halperin does not appear to be rightwing himself, but rather another weather-vane indicator of how the Versailles media is slanted.
One could go on through the entire list of 50, but the vast majority of them would be only minor variants of the categories already identified. Krugman, at 48, stands out as that rare exception-someone who comes out of an academic discipline where ones ideas and assertions are vigorously challenged, and there are professional structures for mediating such challenges. Almost everyone else seems to come from the circus/carney world, one way or another.
It's thus perfectly appropriate that comedians should so dominate the upper ranks of the liberal side. They are, as is fitting, open and direct about what they do. |
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