] This is in a nutshell the challenge put foward to every
] candidate and product that needs to succeed on TV in the
] modern media cycle. There's no background or context in a
] thirty second spot; Crossfire only has time for a a few
] minutes of'he said, she said' fight before signing off
] for commercial. Because this reactionary media cycle
] dominates, political culture has become deeply
] conservative and inimical to conversing with voters,
] frightened to be 'off message' for fear of a fifteen
] second remark derailing a multi-year strategy. This has
] in turn created a political pseudo-scandal industry
] dedicated to creating and exploiting fifteen second
] moments for political gain, with the only check being an
] inherently limited amount of information to exploit.

Awesome commentary on the oil and water mix of weblogs and the mass media political scandal machine in the context of a scandal involving the Daily Kos.

Webblogs and the political scandal industry