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July 23, 2008
Mickey Kaus and the Undernews Theory
In the context of the John Edwards Love Child story Mickey Kaus speculates on 2 other Two Americas - those who keep up with politics vs. those who don't, and those who really only get their news filtered by the Mainstream Media and those who don't. When those who don't usually keep up with politics look around right before they vote, they sometimes get their information from what Kaus called the undernews - and he did so back in December.
One place where he sees some explanatory power is the volatility of polls - like when voters find out that Giuliani had been married 3 times. I'm curious about the effect of web-only journalism on the young; I very seldom see our students reading newspapers, even though there's a bin of freebies (New York Times, USA Today, and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle) at the door of the student center; it says something about the popularity of the print media that I can usually snag something to read as late as 10:30 a.m. when I stop by the café.
The really interesting question Kaus asks today:
Will this be the first presidential-contender level scandal to occur completely in the undernews, without ever being reported in the cautious, respectable MSM? That's always seemed an interesting theoretical possibility--a prominent politician just disappears from the scene, after blogs and tabloids dig up dirt on him, but nobody who relies on the Times, Post, network news or Mark Halperin has the faintest idea why.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 23, 2008 8:05 AM
Comments
I have heard nothing of this ... and the first link is broken!
.....All the links are working for me - go to Kausfiles and click on BUSTED for the National Enquirer story - all of the links come out of that entry. --MCT
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist 
at July 23, 2008 9:19 AM
Micheal, too bad we didn't know about your font fascination when Bruce and I had dinner with you in June! One of my favorite topics (I am impressed with your reading). Have you check out the documentary film "Helvetica"? Be sure to! Also, Erik Spiekerman's book "Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works", is great fun.
-- Your friends in Syracuse
.....I mean to watch Helvetica - it looks like fun...soon as I catch up with my Netflix queue! --MCT
Posted by: Elaine at July 23, 2008 8:31 PM