Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Media's TRUE Bias.
My bile level is requiring more frequent purges. The current BS that I am having too much difficulty swallowing is the increasing role of media outlets in stirring up discord. Do peaceful people watch the news? No, I'd think they would rather watch entertainment or read a good book. Cable news, network news and web news outlets and any other mainstream news source are no longer interested in "Beware surveillance", they are only interested in audience size as a way of increasing revenue.
It works like this: create a divisive, speculative, and invariably spurious "wedge" issue (is Michelle Obama a terrorist) and then pretend to represent a fair and balanced interpretation for the ignorant masses. People emotionally involved in any real issue often mistake these phony issues as germane to the debate. The association with real issues makes viewers concerned/angry/fearful enough to watch, and the ratings climb.
The down side of this tendency is that advertising money is not the only gain from this behavior by the media, there is also palpable gain from the acquisition of hearts and minds, that is, propaganda. Everyone is so caught up in blue vs. red that they fail to see the facile way in which their opinions are being molded into divisiveness. The media seeks not resolution, only never ending conflict. No matter which side prevails each day, the media wins.
I have been perusing commentary in some blogs from time to time, and what I see is a division of two essential opinions: [1]. Change is immanent and the time for the return of intellect is at hand. [2]. The religious and cultural values of the so-called American middle class are in danger as never before. Now let's boil these down further: [1]. hope is to return [2]. fear is to return; i.e., hope vs. fear.
With news outlets that only benefit from conflict, is it any wonder that America cannot find any common ground from which to build a progressive consensus? Despite my frustration with conservative imbecility and liberal indecisiveness (conservative vs. liberal), I choose instead to adopt the first opinion, hope, because it holds within it the tolerance to encompass the second.
If America woke up tomorrow morning with 40+ more IQ points per capita, then maybe they would see that no opinion, however violently maintained is immune to possibility. It is possible that conservatives can lose obstinate ignorance, and it is also true that liberals could possibly grow some balls. One point of similarity that both sides hold is this: They both have an overarching mortal enemy that they cannot even see: the media.
It works like this: create a divisive, speculative, and invariably spurious "wedge" issue (is Michelle Obama a terrorist) and then pretend to represent a fair and balanced interpretation for the ignorant masses. People emotionally involved in any real issue often mistake these phony issues as germane to the debate. The association with real issues makes viewers concerned/angry/fearful enough to watch, and the ratings climb.
The down side of this tendency is that advertising money is not the only gain from this behavior by the media, there is also palpable gain from the acquisition of hearts and minds, that is, propaganda. Everyone is so caught up in blue vs. red that they fail to see the facile way in which their opinions are being molded into divisiveness. The media seeks not resolution, only never ending conflict. No matter which side prevails each day, the media wins.
I have been perusing commentary in some blogs from time to time, and what I see is a division of two essential opinions: [1]. Change is immanent and the time for the return of intellect is at hand. [2]. The religious and cultural values of the so-called American middle class are in danger as never before. Now let's boil these down further: [1]. hope is to return [2]. fear is to return; i.e., hope vs. fear.
With news outlets that only benefit from conflict, is it any wonder that America cannot find any common ground from which to build a progressive consensus? Despite my frustration with conservative imbecility and liberal indecisiveness (conservative vs. liberal), I choose instead to adopt the first opinion, hope, because it holds within it the tolerance to encompass the second.
If America woke up tomorrow morning with 40+ more IQ points per capita, then maybe they would see that no opinion, however violently maintained is immune to possibility. It is possible that conservatives can lose obstinate ignorance, and it is also true that liberals could possibly grow some balls. One point of similarity that both sides hold is this: They both have an overarching mortal enemy that they cannot even see: the media.
