Couple of the Year
I've been thinking about why the White House Party Crashers have attracted so much media attention and I've concluded it's because they represent everything that is screwed up about America at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.
To begin with, they have no shame. They lie, they cheat the little people in their lives, they run fake charities, they welsh on their obligations, and they value and pursue everything that is fake and shallow--and then they have the chutzpah to ask a network to pay them to tell their lies on TV.
In an earlier age in America, we would put them in the stocks in the middle of the public square for a public shaming. But in an era of "John & Kate Plus Eight", the concept of shame has been banished from the public square. Bruce Springsteen called reality TV the "theater of humiliation", but what's amazing is how many people are so willing to trade humiliation for that greater currency of this decade--Celebrity. The New York Times' Bill Carter suggests there may be 10,000 of these talentless but needy reality show "performers" floating around our current cultural wasteland.
It's easy to blame the TV network programmers for the plague of forgettable strivers like the Salahi's. But every channel surfer who pauses in slack-jawed amazement for more than five minutes on Flavor of Love, or Real Housewives of Orange County is encouraging this garbage.
The Salahi's are living proof you get the culture you deserve.
"The Salahi's are living proof you get the culture you deserve."
And TPM turning their entire site into a Salahi-fest says what, exactly, about the TPM management?
November 29, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or about the author of this OP?
November 29, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be fair to John, his is the only article on the topic on the entire TPM Cafe page.
Whereas the rest of the site is dripping from top to bottom with drivel about this couple.
So my venom is directed mainly at TPM management - who decide what is and is not important enough to merit space.
On this subject, they are every bit as sleazy and pandering as any tabloid or cable network.
It is all the more pathetic when it comes from supposedly intelligent people who should know better.
November 29, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Audacity is the name of the game, the buzz word. Insolence is now excetpable.
What used to be dangerous and could cause you long periods behind bars in now on a scale of "Political Correctness". When a policeman find a house being broken into, the cop is called stupid by the president.
The same Whitehoues staffers write in names at the last minute. Why?
If you think the Secret Service and the Harvard Police are stupid, you and the president are on the same page and expect some very bad days.
November 29, 2009 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which house was that? I don't know about one that was being "broken into." If it's the one I THINK you're referring to, the door was hard to open, and the owner was working the key. Is that breaking in?
"The same Whitehoues (sic) staffers write in names at the last minute." What the hell does THAT mean?
Petty much? You need a hobby.
November 29, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
M.Paul:
The writer of that comment is a moron.
The usual typing without knowing a single thing about the events.
Here is some new information on the event and what may have led to it:
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2009/11/29/white-house-guest-list-chief-says-she-quit-post.aspx
November 29, 2009 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like Tom Friedman said on Charlie Rose last week: "We need better citizens." That said, Top Chef and Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew are incredible shows, despite the rest of the sordid reality show genre.
November 29, 2009 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
That they are such deadbeats, phonies, flakes, and chiselers, undermines a sort of isn't-that-cute narrative that might modestly have helped Secret Service/WH *and* the adorable couple. The Oprah crowd is a bit cool to pirateers.
November 29, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jon you must be really bored.
My self I spent a good part of this afternoon researching / informing myself about Afghanistan.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/m_paul/2009/11/rethink-afghanistan-video---mu.php
While all you did was drag the dregs of the TPM front page into our little world here at the Cafe.
We need better citizens, yes, but I wish Josh and his editorial staff would start a new page. They could call it TPMT, Talking Points Memo-the Tabloid edition. And while we are dreaming lets make it so that if you post on the TPMT site you are forever banned from the rest of the TPM empire.
Oh yea, must not forget to thank you for dragging a couple of new trolls into the cafe!
It sure is hard to spit whilst ones tongue is firmly in cheek.
M. Paul
November 29, 2009 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too was reading about Afghanistan and I got so depressed I had to write about reality TV.
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20091231_art004.pdf
November 29, 2009 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a wonderful story. It did its job. No one is talking about ACORN getting Federal funding thanks to act'g ass. AG Barron.
November 29, 2009 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
ACORN? that's so last week on the SpewStream for Repeat-a-Con Tools. where have you been? not over at FrontPage or NewSmax. otherwise you'd know that this week's target is "ClimateGate", named in the tradition of uncreative American whiners for almost four decades now.
November 29, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, if I was a leftee and I lost my ACORN, I would be very afraid. It is interesting to see how some people can live very happy lives with their heads very deeply up their okuli. We really dont need to get truth from the CRU or the IPPC. How can you save the world if you demand the truth.
November 29, 2009 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has ACORN ever even been indicted. It sure the hell haven't ever been convicted for any of the crimes alleged in its brutal right-siding. Come back and whine after a jury has found ACORN guilty of something, OK?
As for heads buried deep up in one's assumption, exactly what was it that i wrote, that caused you to believe i am a leftist politically? Are you incapable of comprehending models that depict reality in more that just two dimensions? Do you suffer from a BiPolar Political Associative Disorder?
Finally, here's your free TPM Cafe tip-o-the-day: when responding to a comment, double-click the red-text link titled "Reply" at the end of the comment.
November 30, 2009 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tell me everything you know about ACORN. Oh. You already did. Nothing.
November 30, 2009 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I hope watching Real Housewives of Orange County will encourage people to get the pitchforks and torches out.
Come on, J-Tap: there's lots of great things about our popular culture right now. Have you seen "Bored To Death" on HBO?
November 30, 2009 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
This couple should be JAILED and someone within the Secret Service should be FIRED!!!
How does a random uninvited couple get past THREE security checkpoints and all the way inside the White House and directly in the face of the PRESIDENT???
Check out this interesting story with video regarding the couple and their plans:
FULL STORY: http://okwassup.blogspot.com
November 30, 2009 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
okwassup:
Couldn;t agree more.
and any 'news' outlet that pays them for their interview should be informed - through delicate backchannels - that their access to the president and their notice during presidential press conferences will approach ZERO in the future.
November 30, 2009 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not entirely sure what they should be jailed. If a citizen journalist had gotten close to the president and asked some impolitic questions we'd consider it something of a triumph, no?
November 30, 2009 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is suspicious...can you even imagine this happening to Bush? This, along with allowing guns in at presidential appearances makes me wonder who told the secret service to stand down. Absolutely people should be fired!
November 30, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Um, aren't blogs the new stocks? Duh!
November 30, 2009 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I thought VH1 was the new public square!
November 30, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
They took Self-serving to a whole 'nother level. Mocking government and the dignity of a State Dinner to provide us with entertainment?!? Shame on the networks who believe they should get even one more minute of fame. They got in and they spread their succcess around the world.
Thanks for exposing a security weakness. Now return to the nothingness that shines from this stunt.
December 1, 2009 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or about the author of thisparça kontör
November 18, 2010 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink