A self-referential kind of town
As I’ve gotten to know my new home, one aspect of Washington, DC continues to amaze me. Everywhere you go, there is a TV playing a 24-hour news channel. Every cheap coffeeshop. Every swanky Georgetown bar. Every sweaty gym. You can even read political attitudes in the choice of channel. Places where lefty young folks hang out might play MSNBC. Industry types will go to a steakhouse playing Fox News. In this city, CNN is now the safe middle ground.
You could try to justify this news obsession by arguing that many new area residents are deeply affected by political decisions, and so need to follow it closely. And you’d be partially right. Still, it has far exceeded that need, into a sort of civic narcissism. I recently was sitting in a café and saw part of my neighborhood underwater, a CNN news helicopter circling overhead. How absurd to only know my neighborhood was flooding because I saw it on TV. When I voted in the general election, a news helicopter filmed the lines waiting to cast their ballot. When I biked to the inauguration, a reporter tried to interview me about the experience.
It reminds me Baudrillard idea’s about self-referential images, about the image of reality replacing the reality. Residents of the nation’s capitol get a secret joy in knowing that important thing are happening in geographic proximity, and so we overindulge in the news, even when we are far removed socially from the news-makers. To put it another way, I know Al Gore’s testimony was before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but I still don’t know the name of my next door neighbor.
You could try to justify this news obsession by arguing that many new area residents are deeply affected by political decisions, and so need to follow it closely. And you’d be partially right. Still, it has far exceeded that need, into a sort of civic narcissism. I recently was sitting in a café and saw part of my neighborhood underwater, a CNN news helicopter circling overhead. How absurd to only know my neighborhood was flooding because I saw it on TV. When I voted in the general election, a news helicopter filmed the lines waiting to cast their ballot. When I biked to the inauguration, a reporter tried to interview me about the experience.
It reminds me Baudrillard idea’s about self-referential images, about the image of reality replacing the reality. Residents of the nation’s capitol get a secret joy in knowing that important thing are happening in geographic proximity, and so we overindulge in the news, even when we are far removed socially from the news-makers. To put it another way, I know Al Gore’s testimony was before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but I still don’t know the name of my next door neighbor.
