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defrogI found the story of the Salahis mildly amusing at best, and another sad symptom of the Reality TV Generation in which people really will do anything to get on television – in which case the worst thing anyone could do was give these people the attention they wanted in the first place.
So naturally, everyone’s still talking about it obsessively as though it's an Important Issue.
But then I saw this piece in the NYT on how the Salahis’ greatest trespass wasn’t gaming their way past the Secret Service – but breaking every etiquette rule of the socialite code that rules the Washington elite:
... When Ms. Salahi strutted onto the South Lawn in that bright red lehenga, she and her husband breached far more than a secure perimeter. They also trampled countless protocols that are the social, business and networking bedrock of official Washington.
When Ms. Salahi sidled up to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., she was faking a friendship she didn’t have. She was also cutting ahead of thousands of people who spend years trying to win entry into gatherings of Washington’s elite.
When the Salahis put their collection of digital snaps of the state dinner on Facebook, they flouted all the unwritten rules of power-wall etiquette. (Including a new one that nobody had thought to mention: Don’t put your power wall on Facebook.) As an enhancer of prestige, these photographic menageries always target a certain audience — constituents in the case of politicians, potential clients in the case of lobbyists. It tells those audiences, “I know how to get things done.”
But by putting their photos online, the Salahis weren’t taking aim at anyone, unless you consider the entire planet their target audience.
You know ... when you put it like that, it almost makes them sound punk.
Okay, not really. And it still doesn’t justify giving them a reality TV deal. Still, on that scale it’s more of an accomplishment than I initially gave them credit for.
Well did you evah,
This is dF
So naturally, everyone’s still talking about it obsessively as though it's an Important Issue.
But then I saw this piece in the NYT on how the Salahis’ greatest trespass wasn’t gaming their way past the Secret Service – but breaking every etiquette rule of the socialite code that rules the Washington elite:
... When Ms. Salahi strutted onto the South Lawn in that bright red lehenga, she and her husband breached far more than a secure perimeter. They also trampled countless protocols that are the social, business and networking bedrock of official Washington.
When Ms. Salahi sidled up to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., she was faking a friendship she didn’t have. She was also cutting ahead of thousands of people who spend years trying to win entry into gatherings of Washington’s elite.
When the Salahis put their collection of digital snaps of the state dinner on Facebook, they flouted all the unwritten rules of power-wall etiquette. (Including a new one that nobody had thought to mention: Don’t put your power wall on Facebook.) As an enhancer of prestige, these photographic menageries always target a certain audience — constituents in the case of politicians, potential clients in the case of lobbyists. It tells those audiences, “I know how to get things done.”
But by putting their photos online, the Salahis weren’t taking aim at anyone, unless you consider the entire planet their target audience.
You know ... when you put it like that, it almost makes them sound punk.
Okay, not really. And it still doesn’t justify giving them a reality TV deal. Still, on that scale it’s more of an accomplishment than I initially gave them credit for.
Well did you evah,
This is dF
