Reporters, anchors, pundits, columnists, editors and talk show hosts have plenty to talk about these days. To use a newsroom cliché, it seems like there’s a “perfect storm” of events occurring that may even be able to sell a few newspapers. We have a real manmade disaster. We have a general fired after gossiping about the President. We have a hurricane. And we have a prominent (at least to some) politician facing allegations of sexual misconduct. Now if only we could combine some of these…ah, here comes the fast-food of newspapers. This week, a USA Today front page headline read ‘A region’s new fear: An oily hurricane.’ Now that’s a perfect storm.
Does it ever seem like we’re cheering for all this? Life can be boring. Day-to-day activities of an American adult can get monotonous. Despite the perception, most of us are employed. The unemployment rate hovers at just below 10 percent. It has for months. That means 90 percent of us are employed and have been for some time—at the same job. Our routines are often predictable and–despite what’s coming out of the media–very safe. The U.S. Census Bureau reports about 50 percent of Americans are married. As part of that statistic, it can sometimes be less-than-exciting. Both these numbers may make for a lot of bored Americans.
But wait, here comes an oily hurricane dropping petroleum soaked pelicans and sea gulls onto the roofs of FEMA trailers leftover from Hurricane Katrina. This would be exciting to anyone–except perhaps those caught in its path! News is a business just like any other. With circulation numbers, people meters, portable people meters and instant information on website hits, those in charge know exactly what people want. We want to be scared. We want to make judgments about celebrities and politicians from the safety of our arm chairs, and we want an oily hurricane so we can look at our television and say “those poor people”—followed by “whose fault is this?” The answer can be found either at Fox News, who will blame Team Obama, or at MSNBC, who will blame Team Bush. (Not to be confused with Team Edward or Team Jacob.)
As a news junkie, I enjoy watching, listening and reading too—even though events given the highest importance seem a little silly or just a desperate attempt to tug at our worst fears. Maybe the media will get lucky and the oily hurricane will wash ashore a few crude-covered great white sharks that disproportionately attack minorities…maybe not.
I don’t blame the media for the fear stories or the continuous coverage of politicians, perhaps behaving badly, but what I did find disturbing was on that very same front page of the USA Today that brandished the ‘oily hurricane’ headline was a poll finding that two of three Americans can’t name a single sitting member of the Supreme Court justices. Now that is a bit scary.
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and they can’t name their congressman and they can’t name their senators and they can’t name their state legislators, and they couldn’t begin to tell you which party stands for what. a lot of them aren’t registered to vote and a lot of them who are registered don’t vote. talk a little politics with them and you get responses like “they’re all crooks” and “get ‘em all out” and “the (N)s own the democratic party.” They believe what they wan’t to believe in tv ads like “Gore is gonna take your guns away” and “Kerry wasn’t a hero, he was a traitor” and “hussein obama aint no american” and “socialists are gonna cut off gramma’s life support.” But they aren’t all stupid and sometimes, after a little calm discussion, you can get across to them a point like “if the republicans really want to stop abortion, why didn’t they pass anything when they controlled the white house and a majority in Congress?” if you can get them to think hard, sometimes you can get one to realize he or she has been duped by right wing emotional blather.
IF a day goes by when I DON’T here “the (N)s own the democratic party” I am just shocked.
You are an idiot ivan.
Dale,
Maybe you need to do some critical thinking. Perhaps Ivan was telling the truth that he hears that phrase every day–he mutters it to himself!
First off… Good post Tommy! Makes a lot of sense. But here might be a few of the answers to your comments and questions of why.
One, as you well know “If it bleeds, it leads”, “Good news is no news” and all the rest.
But here is something else to consider. If the news didn’t CONSTANTLY push this stuff, a lot of the legislation that has been passed over the years, otherwise might not have happened. This can be both good and bad. The media discusses how horrible the jobs are (under Bush) and TARP gets passed. They, for decades, talk about the horror of global warming and the EPA now has more rights then ever before to tell you what to do and hamper your rights and freedoms. Our gov. is still talking about Cap and Trade (favored by Enron, GE, BP, and Fannie and Freddie Macs involvement with the Chicago Climate Exchange – feel free to look into any of that). And this is what Obama has to say about Cap and Trade, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4 . Bush says we have to get away from the free market to save the free market and News Week comes out with a front page saying “We’re All Socialists Now” and the banks are socialized, GM is partially socialized, a large portion of the housing market is socialized and the list still grows, and we sit idly by and allow it to happen. We constantly hear about the attacks from terrorists and each day we are willing to freely give up a little more of our freedoms-waiting for hours to board, searches, scans, etc. As you also well know, the media, News and Hollywood, can alter ideals and beliefs. Do I really need to go into how far we have changed in one direction over the last 50+ years – and it ain’t to the right or more towards conservatism. The further in one direction the news and others go, so does the American ideals and belifs.
I’ve been thinking recently about the media and how almost worthless they are today. I was watching CNN the other day and this is what I saw…
1)In discussing Sen. Robert Byrd, not once did they discuss his KKK connection nor his fight against the Civil Rights Movement, much less his “come to Jesus moment” when/if he had a revelation and changed his beliefs. They just disussed what a great dem. he was.
2)In discussing Elana Kagan, their comments were not about whether she is qualified and if she will judge based on the Consitution (which is ALL that matters), they were too busy discussing how things are still so unfair for minorities and women.
3)In a Yahoo article about the Gore break up, when they discussed Tipper, they refered to her as one of the people most involved with bringing about the parental notices on games and music because of music by people like Frank Zappa and Twisted Sister. What they failed to mention was that she and her group actully were trying to censor music. That means BAN it for those with a limited education. And the bands most discussed and used as a reason for censoring music was NOT white groups like Zappa and Twisted Sister, it was rap groups like NWA and Two Live Crew. Heaven forbid we tell the truth and say that there was/are democrats the went against “black” people. If the media actually told the, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it would be a very different America.
The founders believed that the media was supposed to be a watch dog of the the government (a forth rail of government in the whole checks and balances so to speak). Unfortunately, they are now not watch dogs, but lap dogs.
And to Ivan… I’m SO sick of people bringing politics into everything. Can’t we just agree that they all suck (truth be told). There is very little difference between the two parties now-a-days. Has Obama and the Dems really done anything all that different than the Reps.? Look, John Mcain and Obama were both for Health Care Reform, Cap and Trade, imagration reform, etc. A vote for one was basically a vote for the other. It didn’t really matter whom you voted for. If you really think there is such a big difference between them (dems vs reps) think about these thinkgs. You asked “if the republicans really want to stop abortion, why didn’t they pass anything when they controlled the white house and a majority in Congress?”. Let me answer that with a question… if there is such a difference, why did they (the reps.) pass the things that they DID pass.
For example, McCain/Fiengold is a direct infringement on my right to free speech, but both the dems and reps voted yes on it and passed it and Bush didn’t veto it.
Under Clinton, with both dems and reps controlling congress at differet times, the federal debt was doubled. Guess what… under Bush, with both dems and reps controlling congress at differet times, the federal debt was doubled yet again.
You also might want to ask yourself why a group of people claiming to be fical conservatives (Bush and other reps) would not only double the budget, but also create a new federal program (Medicare Part D). By the way, the dems didn’t fight the reps on any of this stuff. Which gets back to my initial hit on the media which is this, if the media was doing their job, maybe they would be asking Obama and the dems in power now, why are they still blaming Bush and the reps for all of the problems and woes we’re having now when they all voted “YES” on the legislation? That’s right, they also voted on all the spending. They also voted on the Medicare Part D. They also voted on going to war. The dems. went right along with EVERYTHING (pretty much) that the reps did at that time. So now I’ll answer your question. The reason the reps didn’t create a bill against abortion is two fold. 1) It only has a slight majority in favor of it in the nation’s beliefs. 2)And more importantly, the main reason is that the majority of reps were and still are progressives (like the dems), not conservatives. That is why all the spending, that’s why Bush said “we have to get away from the free market to save the free market,” etc, etc.
Now, hopefully, after a little “calm discussion”, I have gotten a few points across to you! Thanks for listening!
Thank you, Brad. As more and more people become more informed, they begin to realize the mess we’ve made out of our government isn’t a Democratic problem, or a Republican problem. It’s not a liberal problem or a conservative problem. It’s a corporate problem.
Both parties are bought and controlled by corporate interests. Both parties know how to use keywords and slogans to reach the uninformed. No one runs on REAL issues anymore. Instead they try to paint their opponents as someone who’s untrustworthy. Don’t vote for me because I have great ideas, or because I will represent you well. Instead, be scared of my opponent and the evil he’l bring to the job. Parker Griffith was a prime example of this. He didn’t have a single accomplishment to run on, so he made his campaign about fighting Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.
Many of our representatives and senators not only take large sums of money freely from corporate interests, who have legislation affecting their companies pending before Congress, but have wives and children on the payrolls of these companies. If we really want change in Washington, we have GOT to change the system first. As long as bribery is legal in Washington, we average citizens will never have a real voice there.