by Aoife
The main stream media is its own running gag. The result of huge cutbacks in news staffing not only around the world but in the United States has resulted in "reporters" who troll the net like anyone else can for "news" and don't know anything about sourcing a rumor or lead that's not handed or whispered to them by someone they regularly party with. The gravitas brought to a news broadcast by the likes of Murrow, Cronkite, Huntly, Brinkley and Dan Rather have been replaced by people who read the news not those who report on the news. Bresking news is considered sn interview with a member of that family based in California that boasts a former Olympic swimmer as it's patriarch. If you want serious news you have to rely on the internet amd be your own researcher as well as find your own sources. The current crop of pretty faces appear to have shown up in newsrooms without a stitch of knowledge about the history of this country. When it comes to race relations it's even worse. Many of the pretty faces are too young to remember Jim Crow or what it took for African Americans to be able to live as full citizens of this country.
Which brings me to the strange case of Herman Cain. Main stream media (MSM) has been breathlessly reporting how Mr. Cain has been able up until now to lead the Republican field among voters whose mindset seems to be stuck firmly in the 1940's. This same group villifies the current President of the United States as an elitist (read educated) and the incarnation of evil. Mr. Obama overcame what for some would've been difficult circumstances to become the most powerful man in the world. He is articulate, well spoken, and can think on his feet. Mr. Cain is none of the above. He tends to speak in old school African American slang using not only the words but the style of speech from back when I was younger. Deep thought doesn't appear to be his strong suit and to be honest he really doesn't care. His supporters find comfort in the fact that he has no idea of the strategic importance of Uzbekistan or that the Taliban is not a Libyan based movement. He can shuck and jive with the best of them and that is comforting to many. They won't say it in public but Herman Cain is their kind of Negro. He's not an elitist. He's taken advantage of opportunities others fought and died for him to have, but he's not trying to be above his station like Mr. Barack Obama. He's the guy you pass on the street and nod your head at in greeting who replies with a big grin and a loud "Good Morning".
He is also the type of Black man many whites think of when they have to confront the reality of a successful black man. Yes he has a black wife, an upstanding church going woman who dresses modestly and is content being a housewife. But every chance this black man gets he's running after the "fair haired woman" with blue eyes and white skin. Cain is a black man they can understand. It surprises them that many politically aware, educated blacks want nothing to do with Herman Cain or people like him. He is, as my mother used to say, a disgrace to the race and the cause of much shame and embarrassment. The Republican base, entrenched in the '40's, can't comprehend or understand how much of an anachronism Cain, and many of their bought and paid for black people are. Barack Obama is alien to them. He is not a "real" black man.
If the MSM was still run and populated by people with a sense of history and not just those who follow whatever the current flavor of the month is as dictated by people who purposely use their collective ignorance for their own objectives this subtext would be made clear. Instead the media chooses to act as if the Republican base isn't what it's been for the last few years, anti black, anti multicultural and stuck in the past. When it comes to family values the POTUS and his family exemplify them but he is, as I've said, an alien to these people. Herman Cain is who they see when they look at Barack Obama. And that is not going to change.
