Celebrity Politics Clinton Style
3 comments September 24th, 2007
This past Sunday had Hillary Clinton making appearances on 5 major television talk shows. Absent from the Sunday political talk shows since her original presidential candidacy was launched more than six months ago, Hillaryland at last determined that the moment was right to permit the Sunday talk shows the “honor” of interviewing its candidate. When the permission was granted, the networks fell over each other in their eagerness to serve up nationally publicity for Hillary Clinton.
Unprecedented in American politics, the Clinton political machine can actually field to celebrity superstars that the media would go wild over in a heartbeat, Hillary and Bill. This American fascination with the cult of the celebrity image is without doubt the most potent political dynamic emerging in 2008 presidential race. Hillary Clinton and her political machine are cleverly exploiting this emergence of celebrity politics in America. The dark side of this phenomenon is, unfortunately largely invisible to American voters.
Besides trumping substance with the superficial and trivial, the Hillaryland celebrity express has used its power to muzzle any hint of criticism in the media. The publicists of the Clinton political machine have spread the word to the media: if they want access to their celebrity superstars, they must restrain any critical coverage of Hillary Clinton. The news website Politico recently reported that a major magazine trashed a planned story Hillary Clinton was not happy about, when it was “communicated” that this same publication could forget about Bill Clinton appearing in its cover for a planned issue, unless it canned the unflattering piece. The magazine obediently followed the dictates from Hillaryland.
The contrived character of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign could come right out of central casting. The celebrity worship of the Clintons sadly dulls the ability of the American people to reflect objectively at what is at stake in 2008.
