Can the Republic Survive the Mainstream Media?
By David Harris
AmericanThinker.com
January 28, 2019
People complain of the cultural turmoil and upset in the country without realizing that the mainstream media – which nowadays includes almost all broadcast media as well as the digital giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and others – are the main determinants of the mood and cultural milieu of the United States. At this point it is inescapable that unless the mainstream media are happy, we cannot, as a society, be happy. While almost nobody fully grasps the profound cultural influence of the media, we all respond to media-fostered agitation when they’re upset – notably when conservative/Republican ideas are in the ascendance – and the relative calm and quiescence when their like-minded, left-leaning Democrats are in charge.
A sad, perhaps damning adjunct in terms of cultural survival is that while we feel the swings in mood of the culture, most of us have little idea about the media’s pivotal influence. Instead we buy into media-generated mis-assignment of blame (and consequently into dysfunctional solutions). All of us hope for a peaceful national/cultural mood: we’re all driven to escape the querulous, fractious atmosphere that pervades during periods of Republican dominance. And we learn behaviorally – by experiencing the milieus foisted on us by the media – that tranquility can only come our way when their designated “proper” people are in office. Disquieting agitation will ever prevail when “idiots” like Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump… aloof “patricians” like Bush 41…or “Nazis” like Trump and Bush 43 are in power.
The subliminal behavioral message is powerful although its underpinnings remain concealed: if you want to experience cultural peace and tranquility, it can ONLY happen when Democrats are in power (concealed in part by a media pattern of portraying the current Republican leader as appalling while occasionally celebrating those of the past, like Reagan and G.H.W. Bush, who, most importantly from the media’s perspective, have quit the arenas of power). An unfortunate element, which bodes ill for the possibility of finding a solution, is that the media seem generally unaware of their prejudices, complicity and cultural power. For the vast majority of them, Trump really is to blame for the cultural upheaval… just as future Republican presidents Riley, Smith or Jones will be to blame for the upheaval during their tenures. You can almost hear the future outcry consistent with their pattern: “And we thought Trump was bad! At least he talked to us. There’s never been anybody as dysfunctional and dangerous as Riley!”
Exacerbating factors that make this period particularly perilous include:
— Media groupthink, constantly groomed and tended by a compliant social media: those who stray from the paradigm are, through dint of social and administrative forces, excluded or removed.
— Increasingly selective and tainted media reporting of events, with both elevation of their groupthink heroes and denigration of their villains… and positive reinforcement within the group for the debasement of their craft. Events and people that the media choose to ignore or hide effectively don’t exist, while elements they elevate or invent become central in our lives. Rather than attempting to report news without prejudice, they seem to regard themselves as agents of positive change within the culture, directed from their groupthink perspective.
Illustrative of the corruption of both the media and the compliant academy, ask yourself how many youngsters/college students you’ve met who’ve become incensed about the unconscionable story invented by top federal officials to explain the Benghazi disaster to the grieving families and the nation; the officials added the implication and pursuit of an innocent filmmaker to bolster their invented story. This is one of countless examples of reprehensible behavior by public officials that the media renders invisible to much of the nation by failing to note, focus on, or scrutinize it. Concretize the point by asking a nearby college student what he or she thinks of the government’s response to Benghazi: the response will be a blank stare and perhaps, “I didn’t even know that Ben was in trouble….”
The Rest…HERE
