Letters to the Editor
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Macho media
As I mentioned in a previous post to Glenn's excellent Gingrich article, I think the White House spin machine and its cohorts in the fringe media love this story because it fits so nicely into their favorite narrative: Democrats are wimps and cannot handle the macho-world (as they see it) of foreign policy. Their focus on the headscarf reveals the trick. Look! A woman is trying to negotiate with murderous assassins! She's already capitulated her hair! That Pelosi's comments and purpose match those of other Republican delegations is beside the point. The not-so-subliminal message of this story is that Democrats have sent a woman to do a man's job (again, see, e.g. Gore, Kerry, etc).
It's a message (in its hundreds of incarnations) that has long played well with the fundamentalist base. What's strange is its consistent appeal within the MSM.