Last Thursday, the afternoon section of our class had a spirited discussion about the impact of the Internet on politics and popular culture. I've mentioned on several occasions in both sections that the MSM increasingly uses the Internet as one way (i.e., not the only way) to make choices about which stories and/or angles to play up.
Meet Jack Cafferty, a famously grumpy journalist on CNN who has never been quick with kind words for Democrats. Immediately after the first segment of the Couric-Palin interview aired but well before that interview went viral online, Cafferty slammed the Alaska Governor for performance, turning to Wolf Blitzer in exasperation after the clip and offering up this response: "If that performance didn't scare you it ought to, because she's going to be one seventy-two-year-old's heartbeat away from the presidency... I'm 65 years old; I've been covering politics for a long time, and that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I've ever seen." And that was before he got mean.
It turns out Cafferty's been going after Palin almost every day lately. Why? Listen to his set-up in this clip, where he talks about how the clip I just mentioned "found it's way on to YouTube" and has been watched over a million times. Well, say no more, that's all Cafferty and CNN need to know. When something like this goes viral, especially during an election when networks are all competing for viewers' attention, suddenly, massive numbers of loosely connected individuals online begin to exert influence on the programming and editorial choices of mainstream television and print journalists. Point and click.
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