A candidate running well behind in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is not usually someone national media pay attention to. But when the candidate is a former congressman now involved in his second sex scandal, the media’s level of interest is considerably greater.
Since the revelation that Anthony Weiner was caught sending explicit text messages–this all happened after his first scandal involving lewd pictures he was sending on Twitter–his campaign has taken a nose dive. (“Now that Anthony D. Weiner’s campaign has imploded” was how the New York Times put it today–8/5/13.)
But his campaign is still making news–not just in New York, but on the Sunday chat shows, which rarely take an interest in city politics. Anchor Martha Raddatz (8/4/13) declared:
Anthony Weiner still in the spotlight, showing no sign of dropping out of the New York City mayor’s race, insisting this weekend he and his wife are having fun on the campaign trail.
That led to a short report from the campaign trail–an extremely unusual thing to see about a New York mayoral primary on a Sunday chat show.
Then came the roundtable:
RADDATZ: Why are we — and maybe I shouldn’t say we — still following this so closely?
GEORGE WILL: In what I hope are the last words I’m ever required to utter about this man, say this, in his brief but not brief enough congressional career, he was 1/435 of one half of one of our three branches of government, during which tenure he made no discernible mark on the national life. We’re doing this because he’s peculiar and because it’s August.
RADDATZ: And because it’s like a car wreck, I think you told me —
(CROSSTALK)
WILL: Exactly.
RADDATZ: — you can’t take your eyes off it.
WILL: It’s a guilty pleasure.
The thing about journalism is that there are “car wrecks” all over the place–part of the job is figuring out which ones are actually important.
ABC‘s Jeff Zeleny came on to say:
I mean, we are not going to be talking about Anthony Weiner for that much longer. The primary is September 10, so he’ll stay in till then, probably, but he’s out of money…. He is no longer or soon to be no longer a serious major candidate for the mayor of New York.
So Weiner is going to lose, he’s not serious, so there’s probably no reason to keep talking about…. Hold on, one of the panelists is a friend of Weiner’s wife:
RADDATZ: And Huma is going on vacation. I know you’re a friend of Huma’s. What does that tell us, if anything?
NEERA TANDEN: I don’t think it tells us very much. I mean, Huma is a friend of mine, but I think really Jeff is right. This race is — in a few weeks it’s going to be over soon.
Then former CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien joins in to say, sensibly enough, that we should be talking about actual issues–education policy and “this massive income gap in New York City,” for starters.
Good idea!
Which leads Raddatz to pose the next question about… Anthony Weiner:
RADDATZ: And none of this could be good for the Clintons.
MATTHEW DOWD: Well, I think that’s ultimately, ultimately, where this falls back on. I think that’s going to be somewhat problematic, because people are going to get through this. The good news about this is Anthony Weiner is in fourth place, falling fast.
Dowd went on to add that the scandal
is problematic for a Clinton emergence in 2016, because I think the country always does — it smells something. It may not attach itself to Hillary Clinton at all, but they don’t like the smell of something.
That went on for a while, then back to Raddatz:
RADDATZ: Do you think Republicans will forget about the Anthony Weiner scandal and how Hillary Clinton may or may not tie into that with Huma?
See, it turns out that spending so much time talking about Weiner is important–it gives corporate journalists a way to handicap the 2016 election.
When you say “Covering Wiener,” umm, sorry but I can’t help giggling. This saga is so sad, distracting, and silly on so many levels.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems the public likes it’s congress being scandalous; at least if they are Republican.
If this were the WORST scandal in American politics, we would be doing much better than we are.
Well sure. If you have a wurst scandal, you have to cover your wiener.
They spent so much time on Weiner the past few weeks no one other than Rachel Maddow has bothered to report on Virginia’s Governor’s scandal that does not include sex but big time payoffs. Oh to be Republican and in politics, you can get away with almost anything.
Covering the scandal of the few instead of the issues of the millions.
It’s a major media ploy to not upset anyone in power.
Well this is all one big narcissistic disgrace.No matter how far these scumbags fall they still can’t quit ,take their kit bags, and go home.They are like pod whales that beach themselves.You push them off and they swim right back.Thats where the Clintons come in.That whole mess was a disgrace too.Hilary’s roll in it makes her running for a job like the presidency a national joke.They all think by covering up and going silent that they can wait for the “fuss”to die down.Thats fine…..just dont ask any decent person for their support.As much as I dislike his policies -Obama like Bush before him has been a model of decency in his private life.People like the wieners and the Clintons are a different sort.The rules never really applied to them.Yet on they go.To the next job and the next and the next.Narcissistic power hungry political royalty.Scum or not….I hope they all go away.No more Kennedys,or Bushes,or Clintons,or Obamas do we need in office.As for Wiener he is a creepy dude.I would not want him living next to me.I would not want him in my home repairing a Tv.
How ridiculous. Anthony Weiner or Mrs. Weiner have no baring on Hillary Clinton. Please stop trying to make a non issue an issue. Thank you.
Nancy how do you not see a correlation?Both ladies worked side by side.They are or were more than that.They were friends.Both ladies were disgraced by their husbands horrific abuse of young woman.Both woman overlooked instantly their husband transgressions to allow them to survive politically(though what their feelings were in private are another matter entirely).Both woman seemed not to even notice what their husbands despicable behavior meant, and supported them being fostered back upon the American people.In one case New York City.In that both woman are reprehensible.Both woman in a sense turned the other cheek and coughed as their husbands screwed them.Wieners wife herself made a comparison to her and Hilary causing a nuclear uproar in the Clinton camp.But look don’t get your panties in an uproar.Im not hurting the Clinton brand.I do not think she will get the Dem nomination anyway.I do not even believe she will run.For a variety of reasons.One of which is Benghazi.Lot going on there.New things breaking daily.Special prosecutor is on the way.She is in my eyes a liability to the left.I felt in her first run that although she was much better qualified than Obama (who had no qualifications what so ever)that the power brokers on the left would screw her.As they in fact did.She has a long bitter memory of this.Those same brokers would suffer her wrath.Aint gonna happen.You heard it here.