More on Memes

In light of my comments on the corporate media's contribution to the race/gender memes of this season's races, I found these comments by hilzoy illuminating.

A week ago, CNN ran a story that was more than usually fatuous, even for them. The headline: "Gender or race: Black women voters face tough choices in S.C." Their description of this choice:

"Recent polls show black women are expected to make up more than a third of all Democratic voters in South Carolina's primary in five days.

For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?"

The women in the piece don't seem to see things this way at all. They are interested in whether or not to count Hillary Clinton's time as first lady as "experience", and in, um, you know, issues:

"They rank health care, education and the economy in order of importance."

But did CNN choose to highlight these issues? No: for them, the main storyline was black women being torn between voting their race and voting their gender, despite the fact that no actual South Carolina voter interviewed in the article suggested that she might decide how to vote on those grounds.

I start to wonder how we can rely on the corporate media to deliver, you know, actual news, much less analysis, when they can't even understand the sense of their own reporting. Talk about a disconnect.