the circus is still in town

A while back, Andrew Tyndall referred to media coverage of the Democratic primary as Reality Gameshow journalism.

Stop thinking of this election as a race to the wire to be won by the candidate with the finest pedigree, truest form and best connections. Start thinking of it as a cast of larger-than-life characters, scheming against each other while simultaneously trying to appear attractive to the electorate audience. Week by week the group undergoes media trials such as candidate debates and Sunday morning interviews. Each primary election constitutes another potential elimination round.

The winner gets to be a constant television presence in our homes for four years.

Now Alan Jacobs, noting that all four candidates for the top spot have very interesting life stories, elaborates on this notion.

You could make the argument that this is the first election fully to bear the marks of a reality TV world, of Oprah and Survivor and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And also the Olympics, at least as presented by NBC. We’re perhaps more accustomed than we ever have been to hearing Fascinating and Dramatic Life Stories, stories filled with Conflict and Tension and Obstacles Overcome, preferably in exotic settings — like, you know, Hawaii, or Alaska, or Vietnam, or Scranton. Biden has the bankrupted father, the upbringing in poverty, the stutter, the horrific accident that killed his wife and daughter; McCain has the . . . well, you know all about that; Obama has the — well, you totally know all about that; and now here comes Sarah Palin, just your typical snowmobile-racing, moose-hunting, basketball-playing, beauty-contest-entering-and-almost-winning member of the NRA and Feminists for Life with five kids, one of whom has Down’s syndrome. Other forms of reality TV will never catch up. Looks like the political is the personal — maybe from here on out.

That would be a rash and probably frivolous argument, and I’m not going to make it, but you could. If you wanted to. [e.a.]

Indeed it would be rash and frivolous to make this argument, but I’ve been making it for a while—since February 2006, in fact, when I started this blog! A great deal of public life is about PR (or what I call, less charitably, PRopaganda^TM).

Palin is already getting the People magazine treatment

There’s a lot to know about Sarah Palin, who is John McCain’s surprise pick for his vice president. She’s been governor of Alaska for 20 months and served two terms as mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, all while raising five children. PEOPLE sat down with Palin, 44, recently to discuss her life, career and family.

Here are five things you may not know about her:

Item five is the one that I find most interesting:

She has her own style. Palin may be comfortable in a fisherman’s vest or hunting fatigues, but on the job as governor she wears Kazuo Kawasaki designer glasses and black Franco Sarto boots!

How many gun-totin’ mamas do you know who wear designer glasses, huh?
Upshot: she’s authentic, but that doesn’t mean she’s not self-aware, and a clever politician.

This is our politics.
This is our democracy.
Get used to it.

update: by the way, if you want a villain to blame for our collective addiction to soap opera-style stories on TV, look no further than the late Roone Arledge. I discussed him here, after ABC’s Jim McKay died.

Even more interestingly, it seems that Arledge’s signature “up-close-and-personal” sob stories, which moved over to NBC with Olympic coverage, are no longer the done thing.

During the planning, Mr. Ebersol also acceded to a move pushed by members of his staff to cut way back on the now much-mocked athlete profiles, usually known as “up close and personals,” during which heart-tugging tales of overcoming handicaps and tragedy are often recounted. The overall number dropped from about 160 eight years ago to 80 in Athens and only about 60 this year.

“I always loved them,” Mr. Ebersol said. “I sit there and cry at them. I might as well be part of that female demographic we’re seeking.”

Up-close-and-personal stories may no longer be the done thing in sports coverage, but it looks like they’re all the rage in political coverage.