For the media, the motive is simple; a big fight is more likely to get you to watch TV. The right likes to paint the media as leftist, while the left sees a media that serves powerful corporate interests. But the idea that the entire media has the same bias is crazy -- it's as diverse as the rest of the nation. There's only one kind of bias that we see shared by nearly every media source -- what I call ratings bias. I'm not the first person to notice it, others call it "sensationalism." A supposedly "liberal media" wasn't skeptical enough about the excuses made to invade Iraq because war is great for the news business -- so much for all that anti-Bush bias. During the '08 election campaign, the media insisted on reporting the contest between Obama and McCain as a "tight race," even as it became clear that McCain had no hope of winning. None of this was the result of any real bias other than a desire for ratings. News is a business.
And it turns out that this "big fight" narrative is also good business for conservative activist groups. A political action committee may be one of the few groups where success isn't always measured by success, but by the number of problems they identify. So everything Obama and Democrats do is the worst thing ever, no matter whether it's important or inconsequential. And a nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States of America isn't exactly inconsequential. When it comes to things worth fighting over, this actually is one. And the fact that there almost certainly won't be a big fight is no reason not to capitalize on the importance of the occasion.
And let's be clear about something else, every single person in the Republican party -- in elected office or not -- is a political activist. They can be constituent-oriented, issue-oriented, industry-oriented, or whatever, but they are political activists. That's the whole point of getting elected. The same is true for everyone in the Democratic party. If the promise of a confirmation battle is good for activists, it just follows that it's good for Republicans serving in office. They know this and, despite the fact that attacking Obama and Sotomayor is bad politics, it's good fundraising. They can't attack Sotomayor and they can't not attack Sotomayor. What a quandry... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
