Educators to Enemies

[ravensir]

In recent days I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the presidential primaries. As an Obama fan, I must admit I’m feeling a bit crestfallen by the way things are going. But more than anything I’ve just been fascinated about how this whole thing is playing out. The news media of today isn’t your momma’s news media, and it seems to be playing a

Comments

FDR

[marielander]

I brought this up in class actually, a bit. Did you know that FDR suffered from polio - he was confined to a wheelchair? Photos of him standing up - you'll see he's near a pole, or has someone standing right by him, helping him stay upright.

The media, despite FDR's efforts, knew about this (from all the contact and press conferences). Yet, they agreed they wouldn't expose it - they'd cooperate with him to spare him the shame and protect the country (He felt the truth about this would undermine support for him).

Can you imagine the media doing this today? I can't.

Re: FDR

[ravensir]

That really is quite admirable, I couldn't imagine the media doing that now. I don't really understand how it was kept under wraps, you would think no-name reporter who discovered it would feel it was the key to his career.

But of course, it would also be a lot more to ask of the media these days. Public figures are a lot more public than they used to be. I think we get much more opportunity to really see our politicians than in the past. That's probably a good thing for democracy, because people have may get a better sense of those they vote for, but not great for secrets like, say, polio.

Even if Bush had polio, and the press agreed to help him stage everything to look like he was healthier than he was, I'd imagine there would be a quite a sizable cult on the internet onto the whole thing, putting clues together. Come to think of it, such a cult might really exist for all I know ;-)