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One problem in American Democracy: The Media




In school, there was a class called P.A.D. It stood for Problems in American Democracy,   and this was supposed to be a newer version of the old Civics classes given to high school students. There are several problems to be sure in our 21st century version of democracy. One major problem is the media. The problem lies with the role of the media in elections and also in the role of the free press in questioning our leaders and elected officials.

 With history as a guide, we see the problems that arose in the lead-up to the Iraq war. History has been repeating itself with this 2016 election. If you recall the excitement after 9/11, when the media couldn't hide their delight in becoming"embeds" in the military invasion of Iraq, this was problematic at the time. I remember watching the BBC to get some type of rational coverage and perhaps some questioning over why we were invading this country. But if the networks see a ratings boom, they don't question the whys or the wherefore's of any given situation. They simply exist to spew out the talking points given to them. That is why there's an implicitly negative view of the media from both the right and the left. 

It's just not true that they are bias in favor of the left. They are not innately in favor of left-wing causes and political figures. What they really like to see is something new and different. Anything they consider staid or boring is old news, and therefore is treated as such. Hillary Clinton was dogged throughout the campaign about her e-mails and her dealings at the State Department. Trump's diverse and problematic business entanglements were barely mentioned, but for a few lone reporters.  And the phenomenon of Trump and his initial entrance into the race became a bonanza for media outlets to exploit and to broadcast nightly pronouncements of everything Trump said and every speech he gave.  His conflicts of interest, his shady business deals and partnerships, his lack of transparency and failure to show his taxes are shining examples of the hypocrisy and the abject failures of the national media at large. Nothing was questioned, everything was exploited for the biggest possible market share of viewers.

 Of course, at this stage the media delights in the ongoing chaos of the Trump Transition team. They didn't like Clinton or the prospect of a boringly predictable agenda. This is the shiny new object they salivate over. Never mind if it's hurting or helping the country. Much like the GOP Congress, who met to oppose Obama as he was sworn in, the media stands to reap the benefits of covering the trials and tribulations and (in their mind-the hopeful) implosions of this Trump administration. This is one of the major under-reported problems coming out of Election Season 2016. One of the major problems in American Democracy is the Corporate Media and their pre-fabricated talking points which are spewed out accordingly. One of the best satirical pieces on SNL was not the coverage of the debates or the election, but a recent skit that poked fun at one of the major cable news networks, CNN, and their endless supply of banal and robotic talking points which are delivered on a nightly basis. This is not the only Problem in American Democracy, but it's one of the most under-reported problems in our democracy.

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