Irreverent or Irresponsible?

The possibility of George W. Bush receiving a second term seems to be sending the left side of the media spectrum into apocalyptic fits of late. The views of Al Franken, Michael Moore et al have all been well documented over the last number of months. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has made some pretty good political hay out of the various Bush mis steps, Stewart who at least left no doubt as to where he would cast a vote, came out and endorsed John Kerry. He then took his attack onto CNN, with a nasty nuckle duster with Tucker Carlson and served up a heaping helping of comeuppance to the media machine. A sign that the campaign is ratcheting up the testosterone as we near the end. In short the media has become a battleground all of its own.

The timbre however is becoming a little nastier as voting day comes a calling. The scathing wordprocessing of Hunter S. Thompson has brought us a blistering indictment of the Bush first term and fears of what a second one might bring. Thompson in the latest edition of Rolling Stone mocks Bush as hardly a man worthy of the presidency, calling for a return to the halcyon days of Richard Nixon, a president that may have been a crook and possibly unstable, but never embarrassing! But Dr. Thompson is but a mere peacenik in the world of vitriolic character assassination.

Where Thompson merely destroys the image of George Bush as a statesman let alone as a President, Charlie Brooker of the Guardian newspaper in the UK goes much, much further. Brooker attacks the President mercilessly, he scarcastically mocks the presidents speaking patterns, his disjointed syntax and the less than concise explanations of political belief. He paints the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania as a man barely capable of bowel movements let alone world policy, its all very nasty stuff. A stream of Journalism that even the much maligned Fox network has yet to swim in.

In blunt language Brooker proclaims that the world is holding its breath collectively hoping against hope that the electors in the US, spare the rest of us the misery of a second term for the President. A very derisive piece it surely leaves the reader fully aware of where Mr. Brooker sits on the issue of the Bush Presidency and the repercussions for all of us of a second term. But all of his salient points and clarity of thought gets tossed out of the window with the final paragraph of his diatribe.

Brooker must surely however, have stepped over the line with his call for the spirit of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Hinckley Jr. to carry through the waning days of the campaign.

Suddenly an irreverent piece veered dangerously into the territory of irresponsibility. Regardless of ones perception of the fitness of Bush for office, the call for his removal by violent means seems a complete break from conventional thought, not to mention a dangerous and much unwanted change of the political temperature.

Even in their wildest moments, the likes of Moore, Franken, Stewart calling for change and even a public Bill O'Reilly for the stay the course campaign, have managed to keep a handle on the actual process of presidential succession. Something that Brooker clearly has no desire to do. Brooker with his final words has clearly put us beyond the concept of Democracy, instead in his world the end would justify the means and the bullet from a gun, would trump a ballot in a box.

When we allow that to become a solution then the Democratic process will have suffered its gravest blow. Journalism is supposed to inform the public, examine the issues and shine a light where a light needs to be shone. When it gets off message, as this piece clearly did, it demeans its purpose and adds nothing of value to the debate!