YOU DON'T SAY.
In a New York Times Op-Ed, Neal Gabler hazards a guess at why the media is so infatuated with John McCain, causing them to ignore things like, you know, crazy statements by his spiritual advisors and breaking his own campaign finance laws.
In short: McCain translates insincerity and cynicism into a rapport with (insincere and cynical) reporters.
Gabler writes:
On the bus, Mr. McCain openly talks about his press gambits. According to Mr. Lizza, Mr. McCain proudly brandished an index card with a “gotcha” quote from Mitt Romney that the senator had given Tim Russert of “Meet the Press,” a journalist few would expect to need help in finding candidates’ gaffes. In exposing his two-way relationship with the press this way, he reveals the absurdity of the political process as a big game. He also reveals his own gleeful cynicism about it.
This sort of disdain might be called a liberal view, if not politically then culturally. The notion that our system (in fact, life itself) is faintly imbecilic is a staple of “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “Real Time With Bill Maher” and other liberal exemplars, though they, of course, implicate the press in the idiocy. Mr. McCain’s sense of irony makes him their spiritual kin — a cosmological liberal — which may be why conservatives distrust him and liberals like Jon Stewart seem to revere him.
The lesson, as always: give a reporter a free sandwich and some snark and they're your ho for life.
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