Nearly every middle-to-right blogger is having mini orgasms about Lt. Gen. Russel Honore's plain speech in yesterday's press conference. I watched the thing live and I can say that the General's performance was both encouraging and very funny. "Stuck on stupid" may become the "Where's the beef" of our present situation or it may actually stay in the public lexicon for some time.
Somebody's going to use it in a meeting somewhere on the 22nd floor and get their ass sued. It will turn up on bumper stickers and T-shirts (I can just see some big fat dude with an "I'm with Stuck on Stupid" T slobbering around Disney World). I'm happy for Gen. Honore because he deserves to have the honor bestowed by a public starved of leadership. And if that comes from under a general's beret, that's fine with me.
The better lines, actually, were Honore's admonition to the press to not "confuse the questions with the answers" and "Le's get a little trust here, because you're starting to act like this is your problem." In other words, he told the press to do the job that is entrusted to them, which is reporting facts about what is happening to other people.
One of my favorite light movies is Broadcast News. It's not particularly profound, just very well acted and directed. And written. The line that is apropos here is Albert Brooks' character saying, while watching William Hurt emoting on camera, "yes, let's never forget that we are the story here." Or something like that.
I wish that now that the general has pulled down the curtain, that the scales have fallen from all our eyes and media denizens have pledged to rededicate themselves to the principles of journalism and that we consumers of media demand as much.
Now that's funny.
Interestingly, this site, which does a good job with capturing video and actually following up, has nothing to say about Lt. Gen. Honore. Wonder why that is?
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