I don’t know about you, but when the video coverage of the death of Senator John McCain began a week ago Saturday, I reached satiation well before the live coverage concluded with his burial at the United States Naval Academy. Yes, he was a brave war hero that endured years of brutal captivity in North Vietnam, and all of us honor that. But as a politician, his main legislative legacy is a failed campaign finance act, one of those bipartisan feel-good efforts that backfired and made things worse.

So, how is it that his passing and a week’s worth of scheduled events merited wall-to-wall coverage? President Kennedy’s assassination required two days of live coverage for the death and funeral. I am hopeful that the Media Research Center  will tabulate the total hours of coverage and compare it to the live coverage of events around the death of President Ronald Reagan. My impression is that McCain received more hours.

Or, compare the passing of Admiral James Stockdale to that of John McCain. Admiral Stockdale was a POW in Hanoi for over 7 years, a year-and-a-half longer than McCain. Like McCain, he was a very special prisoner in the eyes of the North Vietnamese, for he was the senior officer among the POWs. His prominent status was based on his achievements and consequent promotion, whereas McCain was regarded as important because of who his father and grandfather were.  

Like John McCain, Admiral Stockdale ran an unsuccessful campaign on a national presidential ticket – as Ross Perot’s running mate. Unlike McCain, Admiral Stockdale was a Medal of Honor recipient.

So, did you even know that Admiral Stockdale passed away in 2005?  Thankfully, his funeral was televised – by C-SPAN. But I do not recall any regular programming on Fox News or anywhere else being interrupted to honor Admiral Stockdale. Maybe I missed some, but there is no comparison with the coverage afforded McCain, whose military heroism was no greater, and probably less than that of Stockdale.  

My breaking point, when anger overcame every other reaction was August 29, when Senator McCain lying in state in the Arizona capitol was televised, and then the procession of his hearse to the airport was televised live, from helicopters and a camera mounted on a car in front of his hearse, and driven down the endless streets of Phoenix. There was a respite while the presidential fleet 757 offered by President Trump to carry his body the DC was airborne. I guess a spotter jet to televise the airliner in flight was impractical due to Air Traffic Control considerations. Bur fear not, the landing of the 757, the transfer of the coffin to a hearse, and then the drive into the US Capitol was televised. Endlessly. I know because I flipped over from Netflix from time to time to see if it was still going on. It was.

Screen grab Channel 12, Phoenix

A beloved president like Reagan gets such fawning coverage (for a couple of days); an ordinary one, maybe not. Nixon, definitely not.

Now, in terms of manners, it is wrong to complain about honors to a war hero. So my assumption is that a lot of unspoken discontent and anger are out there over the psy-ops campaign that has been waged for over a week to tell us how noble it is to pick fights with President Trump. The anger is justified because a very human response of honoring the dead has been perverted by the DC establishment and all the news networks into a propaganda campaign against {resident Trump and his supporters. We remember when McCain called us “wacko birds,” and we understand the message that all these excessive honors and coverage is really sending to us.

Repressed anger tends to linger in the mind and heart. I hope that it lasts until November 6.