Media Madness: The Offspring

Meghan McCain and Bristol Palin: Hardly our idea of newsmakers!

Meghan McCain: Here’s a person who should be high on the list of dozens of people who gather way too much media attention whose proverbial fifteen minutes has expired. Truthfully, on what basis would she be entitled to fifteen minutes in the first place? Because her father is Senator John McCain, the defeated Republican Presidential nominee who ran one of the worst campaigns in recent history?

Any time the children a President, Vice President, or candidate running for those office gets a lot of media attention, one should be instantly suspicious. Prior to the modern media age, about the only notice presidential offspring would get attention would be for White House weddings. The first kids to get attention were Carolyn and John-John, the children of President John F. Kennedy just as the television age was coming of age, and why not? They were cute, lovable kids who helped build the Camelot image. From then until recently, such offspring got little attention. Amy Carter got some attention for being so gawkish, but as true as that is, it was grossly unfair.

The first signs of media attention came during the Ronald Reagan administration when his youngest children, already adults, Ron Jr. and Patty, were shown to be living examples of their parents’ conservative example. Patty was quite vocal in interviews about her conflicts with her mother, Nancy.

During the Clinton years, Hilary Clinton strictly maintained “hands off Chelsea” and the media largely complied; however, when it was advantageous for the Clintons to trot her out before the cameras as their trophy public relations prop. To help counter the perception that the Clinton marriage was more a business or strategic partnership, they’d show themselves the fawning loving parents of their daughter.

Everything changed when George W. Bush became the Republican front runner in the 2000 Presidential election. Suddenly, his two teenaged daughters were fair game as the press whose hatred of Dubya lathered up to a fever from the get go would exploit anything they could to embarrass or discredit him. The Bush daughters were normal teenaged girls, college bound, who weren’t prissy little trophy kids. They weren’t bad asses either. Jenna and Barbara were really so normal. Jenna was the more outgoing and sociable. Barbara was more pensive. Both girls got in a little bit of trouble while at college. My God, they drank beer. One of them passed a fake ID to get beer under age. Rather than ignoring it or brushing it off as a trivial matter, the Bush hating press had a field day with their offenses. One would think they were caught smoking crack or shooting heroin in the White House for all the moralizing and handwringing that took place. Naturally, this coverage wasn’t as much about the girls as it was an attempt to shame the President and show that somehow his wild behavior of his younger days rubbed off on his girls or that he was not a good parent. What nonsense.

During the waning days of the Bush presidency, daughter Jenna smartly avoided the spectacle of a White House wedding preferring instead to keep everything a private affait at the family’s Crawford, Texas ranch. Where would the newly wed couple live after exchanging nuptials? Baltimore, Maryland, and wowie zowie, they weren’t exactly welcomed warmly in an article in the Baltimore Sun. The hate mail in response to the article from the usual radical haters was pure dementia.

Then came the legend of the Magic Negro who could do no wrong. Needless to say, the Obama children were not to be exploited, right? Wrong, Mr. and Mrs. Obama used their daughters as the perfect props to create all the family imagery to help tug on the voting public’s heartstrings. Even we concede, the Obama girls appear to be a couple of lovable little sweethearts despite their genetics.

Only as the media has become so emboldened and radically left have negative or controversial coverage of presidential children been possible. In today’s world, though, the Vice Presidential level has been infected as well. The media did everything it could to use Mary Cheney’s admission that she was a lesbian as a wedge to destroy Vice President and Mrs. Cheney. How sad it is the extent to which they neglected all the wonderful contributions on education and promoting understanding American history Lynn Chaney provided.

Which brings us to the recently concluded election. Could the media ever have been more anxious to pounce than when Sarah Palin was introduced as John McCain’s running mate? Not only was she savaged falsely and dishonestly ridiculed and treated with pure contempt for things that have nothing to do with her political experience. It was just a red meat attempt to destroy her character and what could serve their sneering nature better than Bristol Palin’s teenaged pregnancy?

Sarah Palin and her daughter had to drive the pro-Abortion forces insane that both of them carried out their pregnancies when mother Palin was aware her child would be born with Downs syndrome and daughter, Bristol’s pregnancy was clearly unintended and under aged.

Truth be told, after giving birth and interviewed on television, Bristol came across as not the sharpest knife in the drawer even from a sympathetic interviewer, Greta Van Susteren. In reality, the less devoted to Bristol Palin especially after the election, the better.

Finally, the media has found its cash cow, Meghan McCain. As the young adult child of the vanquished Republican candidate, she’s become the darling of the chattering crowd from the bitch’s brew on “The View” to all over the talk show circuit. Why?

She’s been an active blogger and offered some criticism of Republicans, particularly Rush Limbaugh. To elevate her status even higher was that she was rebuked by some conservatives who basically put on record simply who she was and put it in perspective.

Well, now she’s part of the victim class as one tormented by what they love to call the right wing “hate” machine.

Truth be told, were Meghan McCain anyone other than John McCain’s daughter, she’d be about as interesting as yesterday’s bread. She’s unattractive and has no real charisma or charm prone to blather in an obnoxious “Valley Girl’ kind of voice.

Still, just as when former Bush press secretary, Scott McClelland turned on his former boss with his tell all book that was short on substance of any kind but simply that the media revels so much in any Republican insider who doesn’t tow the party line, Bridgette McCain will get her mug in all the mags, web sites, and chit-chat shows as long as she can provide something to feed on to let the faithful left wing loonies be able to scream, “See, see there!!! See what she said!!!”

Don’t worry America; she won’t have the staying power Ronald Reagan junior has had. He’s the ultimate twit who must have his loving father twitching in his grave. That stories like this drift into real news is the most disturbing part of all.