How covering the campaign is like watching bad porn

Published Oct 22 2008, 12:34 PM by Ian Donnis

Anyone who pays a scintilla of attention to poltics is familiar with the degree of artifice and contrivance in campaigns.

But Michael Hastings, who writes in GQ about covering the early stage of this year's presidential election, is getting props for putting it very plainly.

From tampabay.com's The Feed (h/t Romenesko):

In a particularly potent essay dubbed "Hack: Confessions of a Presidential Campaign Reporter," he dishes on his experience trying to report a behind-the-scenes piece on running for president for Newsweek, beginning with the long-ago adays when Rudy Giuliani was considered the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Besides revealing how bad the Newsweek staff was at picking who was going to win the election -- seeking to plant him with a successful campaign, Hastings tagged along with Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton -- the story vividly compares campaign reporting to pleasuring oneself in a hotel room while watching porn.

Hastings' analysis: " You watch two performers. You kind of like it when one of them gets humiliated. You know they’re professionals, so you don’t feel much sympathy for them. You wish you could participate, but instead you watch with a hidden envy and feel vaguely ashamed for watching. You think you could probably do as good a job or better. You sometimes get a glimpse, intentionally or not, of society’s hidden desires and fears. You watch the porn week after week, the scenes almost always the same, none of them too memorable. The best ones get sent around the Internet."

Filed Under: 2008 presidential race, Media

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