The Bocker.com

 

Based on David Paterson’s recent admissions of marijuana and cocaine use, along with admissions of marital infidelities, its clear that the media has no interest in taking down New York’s first black governor, who is legally blind and generally well-liked, not on the heels of inundating Eliot Spitzer from office with a barrage of controversy stories.  The man is seemingly teflon right now when it comes to past skeletons in the closet.  

What seems to be going on here is that the media has fallen in love with the David Paterson story and views it as the perfect conclusion to the Eliot Spitzer/Ashley Amber Dupre News Cycle.  Why not portray Paterson’s past failings as more obstacles that the current governor has overcome on his way to a successful political career? 

I’m not an enemy of David Paterson or think that Eliot Spitzer got a raw deal by the media’s coverage of his scandal, I just think that the reporting on David Paterson’s past typifies manipulative story making by the media.  These stories have been shaped into the Eliot Spitzer story in order to round out the tale; to give this story a compelling conclusion to rival its beginning and rising action.   

Considering that other public figures have been killed off by the media for far less than admitted past cocaine use and extramarital relationships, its clear once again that the media cares far more about selling neatly packaged, ready for market stories than actually reporting on current events with any real complexity.