Based on the now-infamous moment during the Republican response to the State of the Union Address given by President Obama on Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013 when Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida suddenly interrupted his response address to take a very long, inopportune reach for what appeared to be a bottle of water that he immediately swigged, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly held a debate segment on the Factor with Democratic pundit Kristen Powers
and Republican pundit Kate Obenshain to discuss why the so-called left-leaning media happily chose to make such a big deal about a harmless sip of water.
When asked about Rubio’s water moment, Powers accused the media of being too juvenile and not journalistically savvy enough to know any better. She characterized the media as a bunch of buffoonery seekers who would rather entertain than report or investigate on actual substance.
Obenshain had a different take on the situation, as she took a page out of Hillary Clinton’s playbook from her days as the First Lady when she spoke about a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” as she accused the left-leaning media of setting its political course to destroy the young, up and coming Rubio, because he represents a very real possibility of a return to political glory for the GOP.
O’Reilly, as expected, quickly hopped on that train as well, as he pointed to a Democratic/liberal fear of people like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Ohio Governor John Kasich,
and of course Sen. Rubio as being the catalyst for the left-leaning media’s attempt to use Rubio’s water bottle moment as a weapon to discredit him and dismantle his political potential moving forward!
In other words, the Democrats and the liberals are so afraid that they will not be able to match political wits with someone like Rubio that they must attack his only weakness, which is apparently his thirst!
But in all honesty, the so-called left-leaning media is not the only lion at the kill nowadays. In fact, on many occasions it’s not even the first lion to get there. Social media is the new cat in town, and its roar has a lot more bite to it than originally expected.
When Rubio made that long, extended reach for the water bottle and drank it during that strange pause as he looked amateurishly into the camera, oodles of tweets, emails, texts, and Facebook posts went out instantaneously talking about it, and the so-called left-leaning media didn’t have anything to do with that.
Rubio’s water moment is no different than former presidential nominee Howard Dean’s now-infamous "Dean scream" that went viral, and the same so-called left-leaning media made a big deal out of that too. It’s arguable that it is the main reason why Dean lost the Democratic nomination and any chance he ever dreamed about having to be president. Try telling Dean that a misstep in front of the camera is much to do about nothing!
Whether its Rubio’s water or Dean’s scream, people are in love with the sensationalism of human flaws, especially when they are exposed in front of the entire world audience. If the media is leaning towards anything, it’s certainly leaning towards the ratings bonanza of that reality.
And, that’s not just about Democrats and Republicans. It’s about human nature as a whole, because it’s safely entertaining to watch human flaws play out in front of the camera, as long as it’s someone else taking the fall.
Comments