The media summer of 2000 is now history. As leaves begin to fall,
let's consider a few key dynamics of the political season that has just passed.
Despite complaints about smarmy orchestration and chronic
pandering, the Republican and Democratic conventions resulted in gobs of
deferential coverage. Some journalists rolled their eyes or even shed a bit
of light on the big money bags behind the Oz-like curtains, but each party
got what its backers paid for -- a week of mostly upbeat publicity.
Meanwhile, Americans saw very little news about the iron-fist
tactics that police used in the host cities to suppress thousands of
social-justice demonstrators. Evidently, several days of militarizing a
downtown area is the latest new thing for laying down the political law.
In Philadelphia, while the Grand Old Party partied, police raided
a protest headquarters. The gendarmes proceeded to confiscate and destroy
large numbers of handmade puppets being readied for deployment in the
streets. The crackdown was understandable, since art can be subversive.
Better to be on the safe side!