Existential problem

On Meet The Press this week, Chuck and the gang were talking about the Ron DeSantis stunt of sending Venezuelan refugees to Martha’s Vineyard. Chuck pointed out that they were in kind of a bind. This was an obvious stunt, and the point of it was to get people like Chuck Todd to talk about it, instead of say Lindsay Graham’s very unpopular plan for a federal abortion ban. And yet, Chuck said, here we are talking about it. It was as if there were no option: Chuck knew it was a distraction, and yet there he was talking about it, if only to discuss how it was an obvious distraction.

How do we escape from this trap? Most people seem to have no problem, they are just not distracted by distractions and don’t expend energy on this stuff, but that does not appear to be an option for Chuck Todd. One move might be for him (CT) to just be a serious enough and strong enough figure to just say (or not say, but show) we’re not paying attention to this. But maybe such a figure could not host Meet The Press for long. Maybe I should just stop watching Meet The Press, but from time to time I do find it compelling television: even this absurd dilemma on this week’s ep proved thought-provoking. I could conclude that the harm I do by feeding MtP is worse than the gain from pleasurable feelings of studying its drama and contortions, but I’m not there yet.