Today’s Political Media Landscape – Dems Don’t Get It
My contempt for Clinton is vast. But I get that one of her disadvantages was the fact that she is a member of a political party that doesn’t grasp modernity. Basically, Democrats are the Lokata relying on Ghost Dances to deflect bullets.
Executive Summary
In this study, we analyze both mainstream and social media coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election. We document that the majority of mainstream media coverage was negative for both candidates, but largely followed Donald Trump’s agenda: when reporting on Hillary Clinton, coverage primarily focused on the various scandals related to the Clinton Foundation and emails. When focused on Trump, major substantive issues, primarily immigration, were prominent. Indeed, immigration emerged as a central issue in the campaign and served as a defining issue for the Trump campaign.
We find that the structure and composition of media on the right and left are quite different. The leading media on the right and left are rooted in different traditions and journalistic practices. On the conservative side, more attention was paid to pro-Trump, highly partisan media outlets. On the liberal side, by contrast, the center of gravity was made up largely of long-standing media organizations steeped in the traditions and practices of objective journalism.
A friend of mine suggests forming a provisional wing of the Democratic party. Members would not be allowed to wear pant suits.
The problem that passage identifies is the difference between liberals and conservatives, not the difference between parties. Conservatives will find a leader to follow no matter what, and like the idea of an identifiable party line that renders individual thought unnecessary.
Liberals, not so much.
Having faith in the old saying, “the truth will out” because they are wedded to “media organizations steeped in the traditions and practices of objective journalism” is a Democratic Party problem as much as it is a liberal problem.
True media “objectivity” is long dead and has been replaced by “He said/She said” sham objectivity. So when conservatives say that the media can’t be trusted – they have a point. Not for the reasons they think it can’t be trusted, but a point is a point.
What do you think Democrats should be doing that they’re not in regards to the media?
The GOP lied like never before and people believed it. What are Democrats supposed to do, peddle their own lies? No thanks.
Democrats prefer to messages crafted by the advertising world, and when you have a party that has no soul it leads to bland crap like “Better Together” and “I’m With Her.”
If Democrats actually stood for something popular — the infrastructure overhaul sold as “Put America Back to Work,” or something like that — they might have a chance. After all, they sold plenty of voters on the pablum they cooked up for a polarizing candidate. (If we really spent a trillion dollars on infrastructure we’d have no choice but to use immigrant labor, and you’d get a lot less pushback from voters who hear “Better Together” as “Better Learn Spanish.”)
Compelling content doesn’t have to be untrue, but you do have to put the effort into producing it.
The techniques of propaganda crop up everywhere, even in TV news. This story about the fake bookshelves in so many interview backgrounds is entertaining for lots of reasons, but it reminds us how pervasive image manipulation is, and how often it passes without us consciously noticing it.
This is from Eschaton. It captures what I was getting at.
There Are No Referees
There’s a little race for governor in Virginia, and human-weasel manimal Ed Gillespie is going full metal racist in his ads. Dems always think that “the media” is somehow the preventive measure for this stuff, that when Republicans “go there” the wise old white men of the editorial pages will write sternly worded editorials denouncing them and it will backfire.
It doesn’t work that way. Those old white men of the editorial pages are often pretty racist themselves, even if they are offended by “the tone.” More than that, they just don’t have the power and influence they once did.
Working the refs has value, but there are no rules to this game and no one has the power to enforce the ones you just made up anyway.
If Democrats think there are referees, more fool them.
The way Trump ran, and the way Gillespie is running, shows that they will stoop to any level necessary to impose their will. They are Nietzscheans without knowing it, which makes them dumber than but otherwise identical to Nazis.
Liberals are “idealists” = “the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc” noun– “a person who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc”.
Conservatives are “ideologues” = “an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology”
noun– “a person who zealously advocates an ideology”.
There you have it.
Representative John Kowalko