A dead-on quote from Matt Taibbi that I think everyone, regardless to where they fall on the political spectrum, can agree:
What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. A decision that in reality takes one or two days of careful research to make is somehow stretched out into a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between that by Election Day makes every dinner conversation dangerous and literally divides families.
The entire (rather short) article is worth a read.
5 Comments
Excellent piece.
I had read this article recently and appreciate your take on it. As an inveterate armchair philosopher, I have come to the “ironic” conclusion that in America’s mythic history of itself, we have come to Matt “Luther” Taibi nailing his theses to the door of the banking industry while Paul “Savonarola” Ryan stirs up the fanatical fiscal true believers. When will the burning resume?
Great article. Love reading his stuff. I’ve never read his books, has anyone else? Good/bad?
My initial issues with media coverage were similar to what Matt points out, in that they seem to be incapable of actual reporting. Though there have been some bright spots in the last couple months with reporters taking some people to task for outright lying, in general they have been really lax. I don’t have a problem with polls in general because I rarely put stock in any of them. Nefarious intents aside, it is extremely difficult to just put together an unbiased poll with an accurate sample set. I usually consider the margins of error to be 10-20 points or so.
My main issue now, and what I consider to be vastly more disturbing, is that because the media is committed almost wholly to the horse race, that they have a vested interest in the race being close.
Which is fine if it actually *is* a close race and they reap the benefits of reality. But it is definitely not if they are attempting to manufacture a neck-and-neck situation for the purposes of ratings.
Based on the media response, especially to the previous debate (“Obama was asleep”) and to the one last night (“Biden was too aggressive”), I’m feeling like that’s what is happening…
Perhaps it is just paranoia.
1032 – it’s not paranoia, it’s accurate perception. Our media manufacturers sensational drivel to keep people tuning in, and Faux News has proved there is more money to be made by pushing hate to a reasonable size niche than attempting to be truthful to everyone.
As Bill O’Reilly so accurately said in the Rumble Debate – thge problem is capitalism. As long as you can get paid a lot of money for pushing hate, and as long as people keep buying it, more and more companies and people will be pushers.
Not new. Hitler convinced the Germans to hate the Jews. During World War II we were convinced to hate the Germans and Japanese. Now its the Muslims or the black man in the White House. It will never stop. Hitler was before TV so that can’t be blamed. He had his own propaganda man in Goebbals. Now we have Faux News. We can only watch it happen and cry.