Usually governmental politics, is pretty easy to figure. Congressman A cites a study showing the earth surface temperature will soon be warm enough to boil alcohol because Congressman A wants a green energy grant for a solar panel plant in his district. Corporate politics is usually harder to figure because outsiders aren't privy to the personal quirks and whims of the actors or the true aims of the corporation beyond turning a profit.
Not since the Supreme Allied Command issued orders for Private Slovik's execution on Christmas Day have we seen such institutional comic irony as we have seen recently at Yahoo News. As most readers know, Yahoo has struggled to find a market niche almost since its founders were undergraduates at Stanford. It has floated about the world wide web like an unmoored dinghy on a duck pond, going nowhere very slowly. Lately the powers that be at Yahoo, and it's not clear who these powers are, elected to bring in new leadership in the person of Marissa Mayer of Google. Mayer is heralded by some in the media as the next Meg Whitman, a super smart and super tough outsider who reached the top of the heap at Google by shear cerebral strength and that may be an accurate assessment. Mayer is also liberal with a capital L. She has twice donated $2500 to the Obama campaign and once donated $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee.
Imagine Mayer's shock as her debut at Yahoo coincided with Yahoo News' decision to report that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his posse have deemed Obama's birth certificate a fraud. Merry Christmas, Private Slovik! Obviously someone at Yahoo thinks Sheriff Joe needs a leg up from his usual World Net Daily reportage onto the lower rung of mainstream media respectability. Again with the unknown quirks and whims, surely Mayer isn't a disgruntled Hillary supporter or a closet birther. Is the birther decision anything more than a institutional spite check? "Don't march in here like a hired gun from Six Gun Playhouse or we'll send your ass packing back to Google." I think that's essentially what we are seeing rather than a real breakthrough of media responsibility and I'm afraid Sheriff won't be headlining anywhere beyond WND but I can hope. It would make the election much more interesting.
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