I recently read an article that summed up what I think of our media. I'll quote the relevant passage down below, and the rest of the article can be found here:
http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/222118.html#cutid1
"Conservatives keep demanding "Well, why doesn't Obama tell us his policy ideas?" Guess what: he has been, repeatedly -- it just hasn't been reported. Meanwhile, McCain fills the airwaves with anything
but policy ideas and gets to frame the debate. He makes an advertisement that -- not even kidding -- suggests that his opponent is a
child molestor, and the ad gets played, over and over and over, on all the news shows. Even if the showings are bookended by commentators saying it's an abominable piece of ****, it nevertheless has the intended effect of casting doubt on Obama.
Why does this happen? It happens because the news, for reasons too vast to go into here, is show business. The news is a TV show, just like
American Idol and
House and
Project Runway. We're deciding who will lead the free world, and that means
big ratings for news shows. A news show, just like any other TV show, needs characters and themes and drama and conflict and
narrative, or else people will change the channel. An intelligent, passionate politician clearly outlining his plan for universal health care won't get an audience, but
OH MY GOD DID YOU HEAR WHAT SO-AND-SO SAID ABOUT SO-AND-SO?! works every time. Once a narrative is set into motion, the news outfits cling to it, develop it, emphasize it when the news fits and disregard the news when it does not. Because it makes for bigger ratings. The Republicans, who have clearly demonstrated over and over that they have no regard for their country and will gladly betray it for the sake of retaining power, are excellent crafters of narrative, which the news people fall over themselves to scoop up and broadcast. (This is the reason why I stopped watching television news.) And so McCain is "the maverick," even though he's clearly not, and Obama is "the elitist," even though he's the self-made
son of an African goat-herd. The Republicans cannot possibly run on their record because their record has plunged the country into enormous debt and world-wide contempt, and so they must craft a narrative about how Obama sneers at hockey moms and
why won't anyone protect poor little Sarah Palin from that big meanie? Facts don't matter -- the Republicans are
quite open about that. All that matters is the narrative, and as I've recently noted, narratives often must avoid historical accuracy -- lie, essentially -- in order to work."