Has Politics Jumped the Shark?

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 9:28 AM on May 9, 2008.

Sex? Yawn. Politics? That’s Hot!

A FORMER editor of People magazine had some hard-and-fast rules: young is better than old, pretty is better than ugly, television is better than music, music is better than movies, movies are better than sports.

And anything is better than politics.

Apparently that rule does not apply to the high-drama presidential campaign of 2008, judging by the unprecedented number of pages in People and other celebrity magazines devoted to coverage of the presidential candidates, along with their spouses, children, BlackBerries, wardrobes, iPods and travel Bibles.

“People are craving it,” said Larry Hackett, People’s managing editor. “They are really, really interested in what’s going on, and so we’re covering it more than ever.”

Behold the symbiotic relationship that has developed between the campaigns and the entertainment press. Some of the most celebrity-centric, entertainment-obsessed news media outlets have added a heavy dose of political news to their lineups, taking space normally devoted to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and handing it to articles on people known more for wonkiness than sexiness.

And the candidates have batted their eyelashes back, obligingly granting interviews, posing for pictures and writing personal essays.

Campaign aides say that they can usually count on a soft, friendly chat conducted by reporters or television hosts who are unlikely to hit them with questions about the Iraq war, while at the same time reaching crucial younger female voters.

Driving all of it, editors and campaign aides say, is the appetite for news on presidential candidates and their families — people who have transcended politics to become bona fide celebrities. As the campaign stretches into its second year, in some corners it is simply seen as entertainment.

What do you think? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for politics?

I can see an argument for either. But I do wonder what happens when the Politics Show gets boring in its second season as so many of them do? Will it lose its audience? Does it matter?

Tagged as: politics, media, reality tv