Monica Lewinsky and media buffoonery

In my latest column suggesting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could win 45 states in 2016, I included a brief word about the idiot punditry surrounding what will be a brief reemergence of Monica Lewinsky to the center stage of political reporting. Recently I have seen various personalities from The Washington Post, The New York Times, National Journal and others on the “Today” show or CNN or other political television shows and channels I barely watch anymore, opining with straight faces about the political significance of the return of Lewinsky to political news. Can you believe it?

{mosads}Here is the impact that Lewinsky will have on American politics: zero. Nothing. It is more likely that the College of Cardinals summons me to Rome to be a future pope than Monica Lewinsky moves one vote in any election.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), presumably preparing to run for president of the student council of a high school near you, injected Lewinsky into his discussion of the great issues for America 2016. He’s gotta be kidding!

Cable political ratings are almost universally down, including Fox News, which needs an army of fact-checkers every time the word “Benghazi” appears; MSNBC, the so-called liberal network which recently offered an apology for an employee discussing Hispanics while wearing a sombrero and waving a bottle of tequila; and CNN, which recently graced its small audience with six weeks of straight-faced discussion about debris in the Indian Ocean. Not to be outdone, the “Today” show appears poised to combat its ratings slump by airing political pundits from leading political media discussing the geopolitical impact of Monica Lewinsky in Vanity Fair.

Will David Gregory soon interview Lewinsky on “Meet the Press”?

Will the House Republicans’ Benghazi committee call Lewinsky as a witness?

Whatever happened to great political reporters such as David Broder and Jack Germond, who did real reporting about serious matters?

Is it any wonder that audiences tune out, turn off, and head elsewhere?

Perhaps CNN can produce a two-hour special about the debris that is called political reporting these days.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.