David Foster Wallace and Hillary Clinton

Steven Colbert brought up an excellent point about cultural representations of meaning on his show last night. He asked if the media switched its focus from Hillary Clinton to Barak Obama because they had grown tired of the female senator, and were presented with the opportunity to participate in their favorite activity, to talk about themselves and how they had given him a free pass. I was quickly reminded of David Foster Wallace's comment that "[t]elevision used to point beyond itself", at real life; but no longer is reality necessary to sustain television's popularity. Now it can point only at itself.

In this case, television needs not the reality of the democratic campaign, as it can create its own. Clinton offers examples of 'fake' television debates in a 'real' television debate, which provides television an opportunity to focus back on itself. No longer is the coverage tied to the physicality of a candidate. The story is not Clinton or her actions, but the media's portrayal of her. Popular commentators comment on their ability to offer commentary, and populate the Sunday morning news with favorites such as 'media frenzy' or 'liberal bias'. The news no longer needs to come from reality, instead news is generated from the way it is reported.

Television is already saturated with impersonations of candidates - the re-creation of so called reality in such a way that it mimics the real rather than commenting on it. But eventually people grow bored of these impersonations, so another layer of reproduction is added where candidates actually appear in the mimicry. Yet, it does not default back to reality. Instead it offers a confusing, exciting new layer where people can act as voyeurs and watch as their real live politicians mock those who mock the caricature of themselves on which they spend so much effort.

I think Colbert hit the nail right on the head - when the same old story of Clinton's imminent demise is no longer shocking, coverage desperately searches the landscape for new material, taking any chance it could get to draw attention to itself.

In the words of Baudrillard, "[i]t is not illusion which conceals reality. It is reality which conceals the fact that there is none."