I honestly don’t see what the media hype swirling around this Herman Cain ad is all about. It features a boring blurb by Chief of Staff Mark Block that is unlikely to make one voter who doesn’t want to already support Herman Cain decide to support Herman Cain. And monitoring the cable and broadcast talkers yesterday on XM radio (A MUST if you travel extensively by car as I am doing the next 9 months) a huge fuss was made over Block smoking a cigarette. My father had lung cancer and I have other relatives and acquaintances that had it as well. Yet, I don’t watch this and feel OUTRAGE. Some argue that the ad encourages kids to smoke.
So how many kids are going to watch Herman Cain ads or even watch TV beyond Block’s first sentence (“Borrrrrrrrrrring..).
The furor over this ad and the serious news and political talking heads making a huge deal over it underscore how much hype plays a role in our political “discussion” — which will discuss anything except actual issues. Personality and side issues are much more fun (and easier to cover and discussion). It’s easier to do a quick, angry outraged rant against the smoking in this ad or to opine on how it doesn’t help Block but makes Cain look smaller than life than to do a detailed commentary or analysis of his 999 plan or go into detail about the kind of staff he needs to have in place and does not have yet to get the GOP nomination.
And now I get ready to read the lectures in comments about how I support lung cancer by saying the controversy over this ad was overblown and phoney (re-read this post about friends and relatives and cancer and I also do some programs on anti-smoking).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.