One of the more bizarre spectacles this week is the saga of Sam Armytage of Sunrise who is beset by some serious sledging from a serious TV journalist (which of course might be an oxymoron but we'll fly by that for now) Virginia Haussegger. It started when Kristin Davis of 'Sex and the City' fame came to speak on behalf of the UNHCR (noble cause that it is ) and somehow ended up in a frivolous skit with Armytage. Which, of crows was so awful it turned into a media thing, and Armytage was canned from her hosting job for the actual lunch where Davis was going to say her serious piece. And out of nowhere came a stinging critique of Armytage's skit, courtesy of Virginia Haussegger whereby she dressed down the breakfast morning host for not being a serious enough human being.
Since then it's been twitter barbs at six paces. I don't get the media fascination with this thing.
The only reason I know it happened is because I read the Haussegger column, which did seem like a reasonable protestation. from the headlines, I've also noted that Armytage thought it was bullying. I wouldn't have put it that way - it is more hectoring than bullying. But then I do wonder just how much you can expect out of a show like Sunrise?
The most depressing thing of all might just be how obsessed the media is about itself. There's a whole world of stuff going out there and we count on the media to be covering it, and what we get instead is this really quite trivial brouhaha that won't come anywhere near solving anything to do with refugees or protecting human rights. It's just this morass of dross, the Sargasso Sea of Stupid.
A Bush In The Hand Is Worse Than Two Stones
Just ask the Iraqis. They just don't want another Bush in the White House.
Hashim al-Bayati, a 62-year-old civil engineer who frequents the cafe most weeks, is relieved it looks unlikely to be another Bush, with Jeb Bush finishing fourth in New Hampshire.
"We are fed up with the Bush family, come on. No more Bushes, please," he said. He recalled George H.W. Bush's "betrayal" when he urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War in 1991 but then did not support them. The death toll reached the tens of thousands.
"Unfortunately they cheated us," Mr Bayati said, adding George W. Bush was even more damaging in his handling of the fallout from the 2003 invasion. He says he has little faith that any president will improve things for Iraq.They're probably right. Iraq remains the one big goat that is not going to get un-fucked. What's curious are the voices that do want another Bush:
Mr Ashir feels the biggest mistake of US policy was not the 2003 invasion, but what came after, including the 2011 withdrawal of troops.
"Obama left Iraq to destruction under the pretext that he doesn't want to be involved in wars, but it's a mission that should be finished," he said. "The Democratic Party didn't do anything for Iraq, at least the Republicans have an obvious policy."
Hillary Clinton, given her tenure as secretary of state, would be "disastrous" for Iraq, Mr Ashir said.
But Saad Mohammed Ikabi, 43, sitting a few feet away, disagrees. "She has the experience, she was a minister," he said. "We need someone with experience, and she also has a husband who is an expert."
In a corner near the windows Mohamed Jobouri Mahdi, with cropped grey hair, wearing a faded brown leather jacket, described her as a "classy lady".
"But most Iraqis prefer the Republicans rather than the Democrats," said the 51-year-old policeman. "We like the powerful, not the smooth."
I think that's called incorrigible.
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