Dana Milbank at the Washington Post had a brilliant, beautiful idea the other day, that I thought I ought to share here.

Starting today, February 1, 2010, Milbank has vowed to, for at least one month, not mention a certain public figure, and encouraging everyone else to do so, in the hope that by the vast power inherent in collectively ignoring someone, they’ll maybe go away, or at least become less influential.

Call it the anti-“I believe in fairies” maneuver, or perhaps a variation on “I’m Not Afraid of You” trope.

Anyway, to quote Milbank:

<-redacted-> is a huge source of cheap Web clicks, television ratings and media buzz. If any of us refused to partake of her Facebook candy or declined to use her as blog bait, we would be sending millions of Web surfers, readers, viewers and listeners to our less scrupulous competitors.

The media obsession with <-redacted-> began naturally and innocently enough, when the <-redacted-> emerged as an electrifying presence on the Republican presidential ticket more than two years ago. But then something unhealthy happened: Though <-redacted-> was no longer a candidate, or even a public official, we in the press discovered that the mere mention of her name could vault our stories onto the most-viewed list. <-redacted->, feeding this co-dependency and indulging the news business’s endless desire for conflict, tweeted provocative nuggets that would help us keep her in the public eye — so much so that this former vice presidential candidate gets far more coverage than the actual vice president.

We need help.

So, yeah, for the next month, just don’t mention this person, pretend this person doesn’t exist. It won’t matter, really, as this person has no particular influence or power over any of us in any way whatsoever. Maybe if we all just turn around and ignore this person, this person will just go away.

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Also, since it keeps coming up this week from all different corners, this post is mostly an excuse to post the relevant scene from Labyrinth, the excellent Henson film that managed to unintentionally drag an entire generation of nerds, male and female (as you know, you have both a teenage Jennifer Connelly and Bowie’s “area”), kicking and screaming into puberty:

Dance, Magic Dance.