Into The Thick Of It

Like most sitcoms, The Thick Of It is couched in a naturalistic setting; we have to accept the premises and concept of the thing before we can really find it funny. Of course, political spin (one hopes) is not quite so venal and crass as it's portrayed in the show, but it does demonstrate quite plausibly how personal relationships, vested interests, and common greed and narcissism can disrupt the regular, however punctuated flow of media reportage. As we saw throughout the case of the boarded flotilla on its way to Gaza, political spin skews, corrupts, and in some sense, dampens true and reliable reportage, let alone commentary or analysis. The Thick Of It's creator, Armando Iannucci manages successfully to squeeze a lot of humour out of this basic media trait, and much of the awkwardness and slapstick of the show relies on the irony provided by the viewing audience. The plot construction is largely hyperbolic and tongue-in-cheek, but only because we're aware of it's plausibility. As Michael Totten pointed out in the case of the Mavi Marmara:

While much of the world howls in passionate, cynical, and sinister indignation at Israel for the flotilla incident on the Mediterranean last week, only nineteen percent of Americans blame the Jewish state for what happened. Only 26 percent of Democrats say it's Israel's fault, along with eleven percent of Republicans, making this a fringe position in both political parties.

(Further evidence that the left is losing its way.) What this markedly shows, however, is that the repeated flogging of Israel across western media outlets was, as Totten claims, a "fringe position". Indeed, bearing the wit and wisdom of The Thick Of It in mind, we've been given strong evidence that the media does not reflect reality, but, gladly, nor does reality reflect the media.