Adam Berenzweig

Reality Television

The "Dean Scream" was played in a loop, practically, for the few days after Iowa. I winced as I watched it live on CNN from our living room, somberly watching the results come in. It seemed so out of place, and a bit creepy. As a Dean supporter, I wanted him to say something to lift my spirits, but it was obvious that he was in a different world -- a raucous, desperate frenzy of mutual cheering. I thought, doesn't he know he's on TV?

The fact is that he *was* in a different world, at least a different place. I may have felt it entirely appropriate, or even uplifting, if I was in the room with him. A candidate should be sensitive to the larger audience, however. But isn't that exactly what makes the lifeless, predictable, formulaic politicians that we all know and hate?

One way of looking at the Scream is that it was a litmus test; people took it as evidence to support a deep-down feeling about him that they'd already been harboring.

But it seems to me that another view is just as valid -- that the media makes opinion as much as reports it, and the commercial news sources that feed us today are more interested in a hot story than in accurate reporting -- and Howard Dean suffered for it. And since I believe Dean is an inspiring and thoughtful man who would make an excellent President, the whole country may have suffered for it.

For an interesting take on the Scream, and a rare sort of apology from the networks, take a look at this piece by Diane Sawyer: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/012904_NW_r2_group_deanscream.html Posted by madadam at February 3, 2004 03:49 AM