Brindle Media

Archive for the ‘elections’ Category

The passions stirred up by Donald J. Trump’s election and inauguration as 45th President of the United States remind me of the days surrounding Richard Nixon’s election in 1968. Then, it was the anti-Vietnam War students versus the traditionalist hard-hat and Silent Majority. Today, it’s the “progressives” vs. the anti-globalization traditionalists. And, of course, with social media now part of the information mix, all of us are less inclined to be exposed to ideas which aren’t in sync which we’ve already embraced.

The messages of two songs from those days in the 1960’s seem to have continued relevance in these early days of 2017: Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth notes ” There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong” and ” A thousand people in the street
singing songs and carrying signs. Mostly say, hooray for our side. ”  The Youngblood’s Get Together encourages us to “Smile on your brother, everybody get together and love one another right now”.

Simplistic suggestions from a more idealistic time but worth considering, nevertheless.

“Country people tend to consider that they have a corner on righteousness and to distrust most manifestations of cleverness, while people in the city are leery of righteousness but ascribe to themselves all manner of cleverness.”-Edward Hoagland

Could this be a good explanation of what’s been going on in American politics lately?

‘Democrats have their own SuperPAC, it’s called the mainstream media.’- Senator Marco Rubio  (October 28^, 2015 Republican Presidential Candidate Debate)

Anyone who’s ever worked at one of the broadcast television networks knows that their staffs are composed of a hodgepodge of political (and a-political) opinions.  The only agenda is to be relevant and interesting to the 18-49 year old American adults who advertisers yearn to reach. There’s also the news division’s quest, which they take very seriously, for journalistic integrity.

Here’s something to consider. By definition, doesn’t’ “mainstream media” mean that it resonates with the majority of people; the actual mainstream?

Of course, the reason that “mainstream media” is such a tempting target for these politicians and for demagogic radio and TV personalities is that the audiences to whom they are pandering tend to be fringe groups; outsiders who perceive themselves as special, unique and superior to the majority of their fellow citizens. Therefore, media who represent the values and attitudes of those in the mainstream must, somehow, be tainted.

And who, actually, are the “mainstream media”? Are they just the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks and their cable news subsidiaries? Is Fox News a member of the “mainstream media”? What about Facebook and Twitter? One could argue, given their vast audiences and news dissemination services that they also belong in the category of “mainstream media”.

So, the next time you hear someone attack the mainstream media, it might be worth asking yourself exactly which fringe group that person is trying to impress.