Weiner Should Have Whipped the Washingtonian Media Complex

News of congressman Anthony Weiner's resignation yesterday saddened me. As much of a schmuck he clearly is, I can't help but feel sorry for him and his family, who he's both publicly embarrassed and personally hurt.

But in terms of national discourse, a notion was brought to my mind regarding the spectacle and the outcome that could have been.

For weeks now we've heard from the mouths of the media about Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Congress members who've insisted that Weiner should resign. Meanwhile, there have been numerous independent media outlets/journalists that have published pieces emphasizing a sad truth: there are so many more important issues that are being overlooked while we voyeuristically scoff, point our fingers, & disapprove of Weiner's voyeurism (See this and brace yourself for this).

This cuts to a larger point: the actions of our censuring Congress members (and President) may be more inappropriate and offensive than Anthony Weiner's Tweeter affairs.

So a 9.1% unemployment rate--more like 15-16%--should take a backseat to the Weiner scandal (in more ways than one)? That's certainly what I'm hearing from the top of the hour news segments on the radio, and according to my wife, who catches clips of Fox News and other major news networks while working as a personal care assistant in the homes of clients, the mainstream media is just wild for Weiner's public perversion and the attention the media machine has decidely generated.

It certainly does seem like the media and Congress is overly distracted, in fact, they tend to let their focus shift from the barely important to the utterly unimportant anytime a sex-oriented scandal hits the headlines (of their own accord it should be noted).

Weiner's public resignation emphasized an important and obvious truth: he has become a distraction. But he didn't take it home, so to speak. Really, what does he have to lose at this point, aside from what I can only assume is a loving and committed wife?

Anthony Weiner, the congressman who made the Republicans look like heartless pigs when they refused to vote for a bill to provide medical benefits to 9/11 responders, could have made a game changing impact on our culture, our politics, on how we view the corporate media (or don't), & forced us to examine what we expect from members of the press and the news organizations they serve.

Anthony Weiner should have expounded on his "distraction" point. He should have screamed at his colleagues who've repeatedly censured him like he screamed at the Republicans over the 9/11 Responders Bill. Not because they censured him, just because they've spent so much time doing so.

Anthony Weiner should have laid out a dozen or so important current issues in front of the press who witnessed and documented his resignation. He should have done so, and asked a room full of journalists why they've spent so much time ignoring the overt significance of those issues.

He missed his chance to have a positive, lasting effect. Unfortunately, he was and is as distracted as the Washingtonian Media Complex that surrounded him with so much unwanted attention.


A clean picture for a change...