Obama on the Couch

NRO ^ | 4 Jan 2014 | Matthew Continetti

[Rummyfan]

Imagine my surprise this week when my daily paper suddenly turned into a copy of US Weekly. With a turn of the page the New York Times became the sort of celebrity magazine that dispenses trivia in order to prove that a rich, famous, and powerful person is, at heart, just like us. The luminary was Barack Obama, whose taste in television was mined by correspondent Michael D. Shear for insights into the presidential character. Shear failed to provide any, but his article was riveting nonetheless. What at first glance might be dismissed as a piece of journalistic fluff, a beat-sweetener written for the slow news days between Christmas and New Year’s, is on close examination an exercise in social positioning, an assertion of class allegiance on the part of the president and the paper.

[ToastedHead]

Seems like the NYTimes wants to imply that the movers and shakers among us watch the following tv shows:

-HBO’s Game of Thrones
-Boardwalk Empire
-AMC’s Breaking Bad
-Mad Men
-Homeland
-The Wire
-Modern Family
-Parks and Recreation
-Netflix show House of Cards

Please, in my entire life, I have never had that kind of time leftover to devote to this amount of television. Of the above, I’ve seen random episodes of Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

I would argue the regular consumers of the above list, especially the ones that are on top shelf channels like HBO, are overpaid and underworked government employees. Those of us who get things done don’t have the emotional energy left when we get home to get wrapped up into who nailed who five years ago. (The Mad Men guy is hot, though. I can watch unattached episodes, have no clue what is going on, and still feel satisfied.)