John McCain and the Media: Political Pornography

When one thinks of storied romances, there are those in literature. The most obvious being Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. A less obvious might be Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. A popular subject throughout the history of cinema, this subject has been revisited countless times to the degree that the same actors can play different characters with different story lines to the delight of the movie audiences. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan come to mind, as do Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn of yesteryear.

The stories of great romances have, as part of their attraction, certain enobling characteristics of self-sacrifice and forgiveness; of wanting what's best for the other person regardless of what its cost.

This cannot be said for the romance between Senator John McCain and the liberal, national media. Before he announced his candidacy for President, and up until he won the Republican nomination, he was the darling of the media. From that point until his concession speech, he was, at best, an unwanted step-child. Since his failed bid for the presidency, he has returned to his beloved status. Last week, the New York Times delightfully declared, The maverick is back!". This is after McCain excoriated his fellow senator, John Cornyn, of Texas. Apparently, McCain is the only non-Democrat elected official in Washington, D.C., who is allowed to follow his own conscience.

Why in the world would the media want the good senator back, except to help validate their own villification of any Republican or conservative who dare whisper in public any idea or philosophy that contradicts their own. I didn't expect McCain to have any degree of an epiphany about this. That pre-supposes present-day honor. McCain, like his chosen bedfellows, is now an embodiment of self-interest. He won't even give his support to Sarah Palin who not only did his bidding at the expense of her own during the campaign, she brought excitement to an effort that would have otherwise been relegated to irrelevance. She had his back. He doesn't have hers.

To analogize the romance between McCain and the media, one might offer the story of the late Anna Nicole Smith and the late J. Howard Marshall, her 90 year old billionaire husband. As cheap and tawdry as that story was, it is still too good for the senator and his media mistress. At least with the star-crossed starlet and the lonely billionaire, a covenant, however unseemly, was made. With McCain and Media, there are two parties using each other for their own self-interests and self-pleasure with the hope that no disease will be transmitted. If that picture disgusts you, you got the picture.