Steve Jobs & Sarah Palin: Soul mates

Who knew Steve Jobs had so much in common with Sarah Palin? Or Michele Bachmann or the others shouting from their Tea cups?

All
of them despise the media for daring to shed harsh light on their
crusades as they crush anyone in their way who might want to erect a
few barriers of truth to confront their steamrollers.

These
hated troublemakers are the ones who insist on asking the tough
questions and reporting the embarrassing answers and/or deceptions from
those politicians and entrepreneurs who have gotten used to spreading
their messages with no resistance whatsoever.

As the cliche goes, if the reflection is ugly, they want to break the mirror . In Jobs’s case, when his corporate hands are caught in the iPhone 4 “Death Position,” blocking the antenna that causes the embarrassing loss of cell-phone reception, he bitterly hurls attacks at the journalist pests, saying “when you see someone get successful, you just want to tear it down.”

It’s really tough on a guy when his bullying and PR manipulation suddenly aren’t enough. Just ask Palin, who at all costs avoids all but sycophantic news situations these days and stays largely behind the bunkers with her Fox Friendlies, where she can “refudiate” the “Lamebrain Media.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), another one rising on the right’s risers, sings an even harsher tune for her choir titled the “Treason Media.” And let’s not forget those Senate candidates Sharron Angle (T-Nev.) and Rand Paul (T-Ky.) who are ducking further contact with anyone who might cause them to trip over their own oversimplifications.

The idea that the voter has a need to understand what the empty slogans and marketing ploys mean is anathema to the likes of Palin, Angle, Bachmann and Paul.

That obviously includes Steve Jobs, who has made it clear that inconvenient reporting is just not his Cupertino.

Let’s not forget every president from Barack Obama on back, as well as every other pampered star in show biz, sports and the corporate world. They too come to resent the audacious riffraff who dare to challenge them. They’re just not used to such things, surrounded as they are with groupies and drones buzzing.

They’re cannot tolerate naysayers, only aye-sayers. The problem is the path of least resistance inevitably is a path to sloppiness and even corruption, which are then overgrown with cover-up. Any effort to clear it away is a threat.

This is dangerous. Look no further than inside-the-Beltway and out-, society’s private parts (you should excuse the expression) or pubic.

If anything, we in media are too often too pliant or intimidated, anxious to look away when a “go along, get along” approach means less hassle from an administration or conglomerate that is more than willing to bully.

What we leave in the wake of our timidity is a vacuum, and hustlers who view it as a convenient opportunity to make big bucks or further their ambitions by filling the space with garbage.

As Americans, we have a responsibility to be an informed electorate, whether we’re choosing candidates or products. The manufacturers and/or promoters of both have a responsibility to make sure what we’re buying is not packaged in fraud. That’s where an effective press comes in, whatever its form, to quench a thirst for complete information. Otherwise, all we’ll have to drink is Apple Tea.

Visit Mr. Franken’s website at www.bobfranken.tv.