Big Baloney seems out to prove how shallow it can be. Lisa Shiffren at The Corner:

Last night I had the TV on long enough to watch a disturbing, evening-long debate on CNN. The various anchors, including the conservative Glenn Beck as well as Anderson Cooper, kept returning to the issue of biased media coverage for Senator Obama. They were happy to concede that he is getting more than twice the media coverage that Senator McCain is getting. The question, presented to various pundits and strategists, was whether this was strictly bias, or could there be another reason?

David Gergen, a man whose shallow thoughts have reached the ears of  too many presidents, made the point that Obama is a great story, and his campaign knows how to make things newsworthy, while McCain is boring, and his campaign is boring and therefore not newsworthy. That, not bias, according to Gergen, explains the majority of the additional coverage he gets. What constitutes newsworthy? Gergen cited the fact that McCain is going to give his convention acceptance speech in the normal convention venue, while Obama is going to do his at a stadium packed with 70,000 people. To me, this is evocative of something Leni Riefenstahl might have documented. But the word Gergen used, over and over was “sizzle.”

It should be noted that NRO’s David Frum was on the panel. He valiantly made the case for substance, and he argued, rightly of course, that McCain’s political story — the comeback from the ashes — was compelling political drama, and his substantive policies are worthy of attention. Normally Frum wins debates. But if the standard is “sizzle,” or sex appeal, then any rational, substantive argument is doomed to lose.

Gergen’s considered advice was that the McCain campaign needs more — and cleverer — dog and pony shows to attract and dazzle the media. This is the advice of a former advance man, to be sure. It is awful advice, if you think that democracy depends on informed citizens who make reasoned judgements about leadership abilities, experience, and judgement, let alone the substance of policies.  

It is excellent advice if you think that this race is being treated like a reality show, with the media as judges of performances that will sell.  It is worth pointing out, of course, that even American Idol, with its faux democracy, only picks a winner who manages to go on to commercial success very intermittantly. And yet, the media, and perhaps many of our fellow citizens, seem to be looking more for an American Idol than for a President.