The mainstream media’s penchant for covering national elections as if they were high school popularity contests continues with New York Times reporter Michael Powell’s gushing portrait of GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
Following the establishment media mold, Powell dispenses with substance altogether and gets right down to what matters most: image.
After an anecdotal intro depicting Giuliani’s softer touch on the campaign trail (he dances around an elderly woman’s criticism of the Bush administration’s approach to fighting terrorism with the words: “Ma’am, I really respectfully disagree”), Powell, who boasts in accompanying video commentary of covering “America’s mayor” for fifteen years, is ready to crown his homecoming king.
The dyspeptic, “not afraid to suggest his opponents have really deep-seated psychological problems” Republican mayor of fact and legend has taken a holiday. What’s left on the presidential campaign trail is a commanding daddy of a candidate, a disciplined fellow who talks about terrorism and fiscal order and about terrorism some more.
To make sure his “daddy of a candidate” metaphor sticks in our minds - that it resurfaces in columns nationwide, is christened through the echo chamber of the Sunday morning talk show circuit and cements itself in the campaign’s vernacular - Powell then delivers a truly penetrating contrast between his newly branded media caricature of Giuliani and the already media-accepted caricatures of his competitors.
If Hillary Rodham Clinton is the nurturer warrior and Barack Obama the college idealist and John McCain the tough but irreverent flyboy, then Mr. Giuliani is the father, the talk-tough-on-terror, I’m-comfortable-wielding-authority guy.
Mark me down, then, as the nauseous-but-resolute-media critic, the I-can’t-believe-this-tripe-still-passes-for-news guy.
With fifteen years of experience on the Giuliani beat, you would expect Powell to bring at least a modicum of substantive historical context to a report on Rudolph Giuliani the Presidential Candidate, to reveal how his record as mayor – the demythologized version - might point to his approach as president. But the only historical context we receive once again revolves around image.
Mr. Giuliani was always a visceral pol; he knows when to retract the canines. Before the 1993 mayoral campaign, Democratic operatives assured all who would listen that they would poke until Mr. Giuliani unleashed his inner Mr. Hyde. It never happened. In November, he beat the incumbent mayor, David N. Dinkins.
And that’s the most insightful historical perspective of the article.
Powell also deconstructs the staid trajectory of Giuliani’s wardrobe:
In dress, he plays to type. Other candidates go open-necked or pull flannel shirts out of the closet for New Hampshire.
Not the former mayor. He dresses in the one-size-too-large suits he has favored since his days as a federal prosecutor, with the top shirt button fastened and tie knotted tight. It is difficult to imagine anyone asking him a “really dopey” (two favorite Giuliani words now in abeyance) question about his favored style in underwear, as someone once did of Bill Clinton.
An un-“dopey” journalist, Powell thankfully keeps his probing eye on Giuliani’s choice of suits and height of shirt buttoning.
And, of course, what kind of mainstream portrait of a candidate would this be without a hair analysis (complete with its very own comb-over definition)?
Mr. Giuliani has made upgrades. The comb-over, his decades-long insistence on combing his hair across a substantial expanse of cranium, is history. His remaining hair is slicked back and comes to rest in a tight nest of graying curls.
To give Powell credit, it’s a nicely written paragraph: “His remaining hair is slicked back and comes to rest in a tight nest of graying curls.” As a sentence, it’s undeniably lyrical, vivid, a line worthy of, say, celebrated short story writer Alice Munro.
As journalism, however, it’s vapid and pointless. Ten more American soldiers died in Iraq today, along with scores of Iraqis, and a New York Times journalist – in a news article - is comparing the merits of a presidential candidate’s former and current coif, a candidate with hardly any hair on his head, no less.
The rest of Powell’s love letter heats up the hero worship, shamelessly contributing to the media's Mythology of Rudy.
David Pass, 31, journeyed to Olgethorpe to hear Mr. Giuliani. He cannot hide his enthusiasm. “He lets you know exactly where he stands,” Mr. Pass said. “He’s not afraid to say what he believes.”
[…]
They wait patiently for the man who will be introduced as America’s mayor, and they will give him a standing ovation.
[…]
He flashes a smile, and the patrons stand and clap and slip arms around him and cadge autographs and photographs.
[…]
More often, the image that comes to mind as Mr. Giuliani traipses into a string of packed, applauding rooms in Alabama, Georgia and New Hampshire is of a rock star, if that rocker happened to be a balding and slightly hunched former mayor.
In Atlanta, Mr. Giuliani offers to take questions, and a stout blond woman in a red pantsuit shoots straight up, raising her hand and nearly shouting, “I think you are sooooo handsome.”
(In 1994, a woman in Queens translated the same compliment into New Yorkese; she peered carefully at Mr. Giuliani and acknowledged, “You look a lot better in person.”)
At the root of his celebrity lies Mr. Giuliani’s performance on Sept. 11, 2001. The shadow of that day is inescapable; he is prayed for, applauded and asked to reminisce. And the refrain from those who listen to him is the same: When President Bush was flying to and fro, when Vice President Dick Cheney went to his bunker, Mr. Giuliani was the eloquent voice and face of America.
[…]
But conversation usually circles back to that September day. When the towers fell, Mr. Giuliani was certain of what he saw.
Defense is for the surrender crowd. He is about playing offense, and with a strong stomach: More electronic surveillance, more Patriot Act, more tough “but legal” interrogation methods. Mr. Giuliani peers at the smiling residents of Tuscaloosa.
“Right now, as we sit here enjoying breakfast, they are planning on coming here to kill us,” he warns them. “I don’t blame people for not getting it before 9/11. But I do blame people who don’t get it now.”
He circles his hands around his head, as though to bat away America’s cobwebs.
“The Democrats want to take us back on defense,” he says. “You can feel it; you can hear it.”
Unmentioned is Giuliani’s mayoral record of institutionalized police brutality directed at minorities, the 41 bullets fired into the body of Amadou Diallo and the rape of Abner Louima with a broomstick a symbol of NYC law enforcement run amok under the Giuliani administration. All the more reason why Powell’s nearest allusion to such incidents is not only grossly insufficient but unseemly.
Mr. Giuliani laughs, he gestures expansively, he even pokes fun at his tendency to wax a wee bit authoritarian. (He suggests a touch of the cane was necessary to impose discipline on that liberal asylum known as New York.)
Missing, too, is any reference to the fact that Giuliani failed to protect 9/11 workers from inhaling the poisonous dust at Ground Zero, leading to untold sickness and death, persistent illnesses that have destroyed lives and will continue to do so in the future. Most of which could’ve been prevented had America’s mayor actually protected his citizens. Recent news reports confirm that Giuliani knew the air was dangerous to breathe but chose not to inform the public and to ensure that all 9/11 workers wore protective masks.
Sure, Powell could've mentioned this. But why ruin a good fairytale?
NY Times Pens Love Letter to Giuliani
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | May 30, 2007 at 05:23 AM
Bravo for this post! There is far too little examination of the real Rudy--concerning 9/11 specifically. You touch on many of the reasons he is falsely deified regarding that horrible day and the following adds one more reason to wonder why the MSM gives "America's Mayor" a free ride.
Excerpt below is from Bill Maher's show a few weeks ago. Actor/comedian Richard Belzer was on and although Maher has recently started to knock Rudy G. down a few pegs, it was "the Belz" who said it just the way I've been waiting for someone to say it concerning Rudy's criminally irresponsible and deadly decision to put NYC's emergency command center/bunker in the WTC complex:
http://www.billmaher.com/transcripts/t_hbo_realtime_042707.html
MAHER: What do you think when, like, this week, Rudy Giuliani said that if you vote for a Democrat, expect another 9/11?
BELZER: Wasn’t he mayor during 9/11? And didn’t – wasn’t the Trade Towers—[applause]—weren’t the Trade Towers bombed in 1993, and then he put his control center in the Trade Towers? When they told him to put it underground in Brooklyn, he said, no. The reason he was walking around the streets, because he had no fuckin’ office. He had nowhere to go! [applause] [cheers]
MAHER: Yes, I mean…
BELZER: And one more thing, Bill. We don’t have enough time. Another thing – guess where they put—
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Go, Rudy!
BELZER: [overlapping]—guess where they put the control center?
MAHER: In the World Trade Center, I know.
BELZER: No, no, I mean, now.
MAHER: Oh.
BELZER: In – underground in Brooklyn, where they said to do it 15 years ago.
MAHER: Right. Yeah.
BELZER: So…
MAHER: Yeah, I don’t know why this man has any credentials [laughter] as the great fighter of terrorism. Again, here’s a Republican mayor in a Republican state under a Republican administration, gets bombed on 9/11, and telling us, “Don’t vote for the Democrats.”
BELZER: Right. [laughter] [applause] His ratings – his ratings before 9/11 were 36% approval.
Posted by: scuttle | May 30, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Thanks for this great addendum. I'd actually thought about referencing Belzer's comments from that show but it didn't have a graceful fit.
Absolutely love The Belz!
On a side note, few people realize how much Dennis Miller stole from Richard Beltzer. Most comics steal jokes - Miller (that is, the pre-Fascist-leaning once-funny Miller) practically lifted his entire persona from The Belz, cha-cha.
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | May 30, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Your mama needs to reinsert the irony squiggly in your DNA. But congratulations: It's really hard to read that piece and take every single word seriously, but you done it. Another irony-immune blogger. You go dude.
Michael Powell
Posted by: Michael | June 01, 2007 at 12:39 PM
Michael,
Thanks for stopping by and for your response.
My “mama” would be thrilled to receive a shout-out from a New York Times reporter. Though, if she were healthy enough, she would assure you her son’s “irony squiggly” is firmly in place. She might even point you to some satire on her son’s site, and say, “See?” She might even explain, “But the thing is, Michael, he labels his satire as such, whereas you’ve written, as you seem to be saying, a highly ironic news article – whatever that is – which is neither labeled “news analysis” nor “op-ed” nor, for that matter, “satire.” My mama, again, if she were well enough, would probably think you’ve missed the point of my critique, or, instead, knowing exactly what was I getting at, that it struck a nerve, causing you to react defensively rather than to thoughtfully consider constructive criticism in a professional manner.
She’d also probably think your reflexive, ad hominem swipe – chalking up my critique to me being just “another irony-immune blogger” – ironically, mirrors the very lack of substance about which your je t’aime Giuliani piece inspired criticism.
Finally, though she’d be thrilled a real-live New York Times journalist referenced her, if she had the energy, she would definitely say, “Michael, you can do better than this.”
And, well, I’d have to agree with my mama.
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | June 01, 2007 at 07:42 PM
If that was indeed Michael Powell who replied to your insightful analysis, he should be suspended from the NYT. The ironic news? Yeah, that's what we need Mr. P--now more than ever. The Bloodhound's shrinkage, suggesting you doth ironically protest too much, seems right on target. U B embarrassed...
Posted by: Howie Kurtznot | June 11, 2007 at 09:18 PM
What is it with Michael Powell and Rudy? Another gushing love letter on today's Times front page, above the fold, in smarmy, nose-up-butt language no journalist with any ethics or pride could have penned.
Our "newspaper of record" is solidly conservative Republican, no doubt. Remember back to (I think it was three) consecutive Sundays prior to the 2004 election when the Times presented page one "news" stories that slyly nibbled away at Kerry's credibility. It was a pattern, a nefarious strategy. And they put these Kerry-killer stories on the front page of the Sunday paper subscribed to by millions of "sophisticated" Americans across America.
Mark the pattern. Watch for more Michael Powell "appreciations" of Rudy. By the way, who is this Powell anyway? And who actually pays him?
Posted by: Shashi | September 21, 2007 at 07:20 PM
What is it with Michael Powell and Rudy? Another gushing love letter on today's Times front page, above the fold, in smarmy, nose-up-butt language no journalist with any ethics or pride could have penned.
Our "newspaper of record" is solidly conservative Republican, no doubt. Remember back to (I think it was three) consecutive Sundays prior to the 2004 election when the Times presented page one "news" stories that slyly nibbled away at Kerry's credibility. It was a pattern, a nefarious strategy. And they put these Kerry-killer stories on the front page of the Sunday paper subscribed to by millions of "sophisticated" Americans across America.
Mark the pattern. Watch for more Michael Powell "appreciations" of Rudy. By the way, who is this Powell anyway? And who actually pays him?
Posted by: Shashi | September 21, 2007 at 07:22 PM