Caution: The 'full article' below is based on the 'full series' - but the 'excerpt' below is related to the video above.
Netflix’s ‘House of Cards’ Thinks It’s Tough, But It Goes Easy On Washington
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It’s difficult for me to take seriously any critique of Washington that is so enamored, whether that was Willimon’s intention or not, with one of the ugliest parts of our political culture, and one of the most substance-free elements of our political journalism. And part of what’s odd about watching House of Cards‘ journalism subplots is the extent to which the show believes it’s being awfully tough on Washington political reporters, when actually it’s letting them off relatively easy. It’s meant to be shocking when Zoe, who we meet as a young reporter at the Washington Herald, offers herself up to Frank as a mouthpiece, promising to print anything he feeds her, no questions asked. But the show, which generates friction between Zoe and her editor Tom, by suggesting that he’d be resistant either to blogging or to Zoe’s cable news-facilitated rise, is years out of date when it comes to either Zoe’s mode of reporting or Washington journalism’s approach to the internet.
In 2013, when House of Cards is set, the Washington Post, which the Washington Herald is a clear stand-in for, has built a publication-within-a-publication around first-generation blogger Ezra Klein, given Alexandra Petri, a woman about Zoe’s age, a humor blog, and hired Max Fisher to blog about foreign affairs. In one of the most risible moments in the show,
Frank tells Zoe that she shouldn’t go to television because she’s “more than a talking head.” “If I were to say Politico wanted to hire me, what would you say?” she asks him. “That would pique my interest,” Frank tells her, suggesting it would be more substantial than working as a correspondent for CBS. The show seems entirely unaware that in real life, Politico has regularly been accused of practicing precisely the kind of speedy, quid-pro-quo journalism that Zoe is meant to be exceptionally guilty of practicing.
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Full article here:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/02/05/1535931/house-of-cards-netflix/
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