The Lemming Effect

With tongue in cheek, my first post on Twitter this morning was this:

'Shellacking': [Noun] 1. a whipping; flogging; beating. 2. utter defeat. 3. News media meaning: Dead horse beaten repeatedly.”

Ba-Da Ching!

There’s a reason for my bad joke. As is my habit, my first stop every morning is the New York Times to learn what news the venerable Gray Lady deems fit to print. Today’s big headline is President Obama’s trip abroad (I bet he could hardly wait to get the hell out of Dodge).

So anyway I’m motoring along in the piece when I come across this sentence: “The Asia trip is Mr. Obama’s first extended foreign foray this year, and he arrives weakened by the self-described “shellacking” he took in the recent mid-term elections.”

There it is AGAIN, that word, “shellacking.”

In his morning-after news conference, Obama used the noun to describe the Democratic defeats in the recently completed midterm elections. I wish he hadn’t. Now there is no escaping the word in the press. (Scan the headlines or listen to any anchor and you’ll see what I mean.)

And why am I bringing up such a minor matter upon which the nation’s destiny decidedly does not depend? It’s just a small but classic example of the routine, lemming-like behavior of our news media. In this case it’s harmless, comedic even. Often, however, it is not.

Remember the run-up to the Iraq war? Remember how the media, in full patriotic rapture, jauntily went along with this Excellent Adventure into the Mesopotamian sands? No one asked, “Um, excuse me, sir, but have you, Mr. Bush, thoroughly considered what happens *after* we topple Saddam’s statue?” Think about how the war might have gone differently (possibly saving lives) had the news media done its job – holding power to account – instead of being such willing lemmings. It did not, of course, and we all ended up taking a “shellacking.”

Just something to chew upon, noble friends of The Portal.