You've all seen those bumper stickers (which I think might be made by the same company who is laughing all the way to the bank) affixed to the back of motor vehicles, sharing space with either "Secede" Texas Flag stickers or "Proud Texas Democrat" patches. Typically the former are on pick-up trucks and the latter are on Prius or late-model Volvos.
I've never been one to put a political bumper sticker on the back of my car. Several years ago, I did, once. My wife's place of employment (at the time) was a small home-builder who gave the employees car-stickers that said, simply "I Support the President and the Troops!"
Of course, this was during the W. Presidency and the Iraq war. One day we drove down into the Rice Village area and received many dirty looks for that sticker. I even got cursed at by someone with a "Proud Texas Democrat" bumper sticker on the back of her car. Unlike many members of the Media (especially recently, writing in the Houston Chronicle) I did NOT come back at her with a witty riposte which exposed both her ignorance and my superior intellect. Instead, I did what most people would do in the situation and sped up to get out of there as fast as the old Jeep Cherokee would take us.
Now, I don't say this to suggest that Democrats are bad. Far from it. Because I've seen plenty of instances where big heavy-duty pickups with "Don't Tread on Me" bumper stickers all but run someone with an equality sticker off the road. We get aggressive over our politics, especially when we're behind the wheel of a car. Not everyone, of course, and you shouldn't take this to mean that I see it on a daily basis. One or two times at most. Although I've never seen anyone beat on the hood of a car or confront someone out of the blue like you read people say they do. Typically it's just a tempest in a two-lane teapot. You see people get angry at other drivers every day, probably even for something affixed to their bumper.
The important part is that hating the other side for being the other side has no partisan monopoly. "Liberalism is a mental disease" is just as insipid a statement as "Conservithugs" or what not. Or even (My favorite) "Republicans for Voldemort." (Which is stupid when you consider that Republicans would NEVER support Voldy's domestic tax policy and the Religious Right would have a seizure over his God complex).
It seems, increasingly, that hating the media has no partisan exclusivity either.
Sure, media hate on the Right and on the Left spring from different wells, and the level of vitriol is muted when the quest for page clicks and more profitability singes the other side, but there's hate nevertheless that's, most often, selectively issued in order to score the highest amount of political points.
In many ways, both sides have a point. Most traditional media outlets tend to lean toward progressive social ideas while playing footsy with their advertisers, or patrons, when it comes to fiscal issues. Thus the same Editorial Board that supports abortion on demand with no questions is also likely to support a tax abatement for a key developer in a key area of the city where something of interest to the well-being of the board could be built.
It's the politics of self-interest on full display, and it angers people.
What bugs me is the media's penchant for celebrating the sizzle over the steak, as you see in this Op-Ed discussing the upcoming GOP response to the State of the Union. The article talks a lot about so-called "political pratfalls" that come from bad speeches but what they're really referring to in all of these is the focus on optics.
It doesn't matter much to the media any longer what the candidate says, only what they look like in pictures or on camera. Impressionable, mostly young reporters (or columnists who have spent their entire adult lives in the courtesan class) can and do get overwhelmed by the power of celebrity. The fawning coverage for Obama was not due to his wealth of new and innovative ideas. In reality he offered little more than standard, progressive-Statist tax-and-spend, complex regulatory environment boiler plate covered in a thin veneer of Hope and Change.
Obama's ability to 'work a room' of like-minded people was enough to send a shiver up Anderson Coopers leg and the die was cast. Mitt Romney on the other hand, with his Mormon sensibilities and serious demeanor, did not appear that he would be much fun at dinner parties so Mr. Cooper was not similarly aroused.
In an age of deep-partisanship I think there is, at least, one thing on which both sets of devotees will agree. At the beginning of 2016 the media is letting the public down. This is true at the National, State and local levels.
When the media abdicates their duty to succinctly explain the issues in meaningful, factual terms in lieu of slide-shows, listicles and leg shivers the people are going to turn elsewhere. This has led, unfortunately, to newsish sites whose goal is to arouse and inflame. Newsish groups such as The Texas Tribune, Breitbart, Vox and the Huffington Post do not exist to report the news. They exist to drive outrage through the focus on ancillary issues such as Rubio's water bottle or Hillary's pant-suit. They are more E! than a hard J-school study project, with little actual journalism taking place.
We see all this, yet still we provide them unquestioning access into people's private lives. Access that, should a private company such as say....Facebook try and attain it they would be chastised endlessly in a hail of hashtags and hateful tweets. That'll show 'em. We give these news agencies access and then act shocked when "Oops" becomes the story rather than whether or not Rick Perry's plans to cut 3 government departments would actually work.
So, we get angry with them, we don't trust them. We look at all stories, good and bad, and assume that someone, somewhere is pulling the lever and that we're not getting the full story. We now treat our kids announcing they want to grow up to be journalists the same as if they announced they wanted to grow up and be trash-collectors. Although, to be fair, trash-collectors earn at a much higher rate than do journalists these days.
So, to kick off 2016, and an election season, the state of the media in America is not good. They have done a good job fighting to keep their freedoms but have then given them right back by refusing to make uncomfortable America's most comfortable class: The Government.
As more an more people use newspapers as fire kindling (without actually reading them) and decide to turn off the TV when the news anchor comes on the media bemoans the current events illiteracy of the American public because they no longer read a newspaper.
Right below this headline, or following this story on the TV news, is a feature story surrounding the latest goings on of the Kardashians. Viewers and readers alike are then invited to head out to the various websites to view a pictorial of Kim's most racy wardrobe choices.
And we watch it all spin further and further down the drain.
Miley Cyrus wore nothing again!!!!! (Squirrel!!!!!!!!)
