Mainstream Media Bias is the biggest threat to Democracy. Over time it has slowly increased to a point now that the Mainstream sources are becoming little more than cheerleaders rather than actual journalists in the traditional definition of the occupation.
Now that the election is finally over, although the gushing Mainstream Media (MM) is still glowing with praise for President-elect Obama it is becoming an embarrassing reflection of a degenerating occupation and more importantly a vacuum in the both the practical and theoretical realization of our democracy.
First off lets face the fact that it is impossible for perfect neutrality in media, bias will always exist but it is the DEGREE of bias that is the issue.
Just as Doctor’s have a Hippocratic oath, journalists should have a similar oath for striving for neutrality. It is all easier said than done though. Media exists in a competitive market and it dictates that the rapid fire delivery of dubious but entertaining content is the way to go for ratings.
I physically gagged on election night as CNN illustrated its fancy dancy ‘hologram’ technology. What really was the point of this? How does it have value from a journalist’s point of view? She could have been in the room next door or in London, England. I guess we will just take CNN’s word for it that she was in Chicago. There was very little value in her content and it was again just another layer of icing on what is becoming a smaller and smaller cake of actual relevant content.
It has always been my view that the media’s coverage of politics should be the advanced cerebral sphere of the news. In a traditional dialectical style presenting the pro and con of an issue. The ‘for’ and the ‘against’. Like a legal trial the journalist should be lawyer putting the issue on trial and both prosecuting and defending the issue before the jury of the American people. In politics it should not be about the messenger but about the policy of the politician. The habit of bringing up cheerleaders or pundits to cheer for the DNC or the GOP a sad excuse for professional journalism.
In the news weather is for everyone, Entertainment and Sports for the less cerebral and Politics for the more cerebral. What we have been seeing is a degeneration or dumbing down of Politics. Unbelievably Sports commentators are more neutral in calling a football game than political commentators in calling an election. Take a stroll through the wonderful catalogue of video evidence on youtube from the last election and cringe at the talking heads parrot their bias to the people. Where is the real journalist today ?
I think the first comment one has to raise is so what ? The media is biased so what ? Everyone knows FOX is on the right, CNN is on the left. FOX news was created in response to what I think was a consistent slide in the media to the left. If the media had stayed neutral I don’t believe that FOX news would exist in its current form today with its right wing bias. It is cause and effect and for every cause there is an equal and opposing reaction.
The Left is not a place that the majority of Americans want to be and although many highly educated Americans may simply be able to state that their fellow citizens are “dumb” and if only they were more educated they would see the truth. This a comment about the education system and also one that goes to the heart of democracy so we should proceed with great caution.
Lets assume that highly educated liberal Americans are correct, if you have had the opportunity to travel this world, to see Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand you will realize quite quickly that America and the quality of life for tens of millions of working Americans is far below that of the rest of the free world it not only belongs to but leads.
So there is a case to be made here for the victory of the Democrats and the support of the elite of Liberal Americans. There is a case to be made that the “bad” word of American politics “Socialism” is really just an attempt to have the overall standard of living of millions of Americans raised to a level that is at least comparable to western europe, Canada, Japan etc…
But in a democracy the point is the will of the majority. If the majority of Americans are too narrow minded or simply prefer the struggle of the American dream. If they would prefer a society of social roulette where you will win big but with lower odds to a wining smaller with greater odds that is the American society. The media or the liberal elite should not feel obligated to pass judgement on this culture and impose itself on the rest of America.
It really goes to the heart of democracy itself and there is something to be said on the topic. We still have a political system created over 200 years ago in a much different world. In fact our political system is one of the most antiquated systems in our society. What the media by virtue of itself is starting to reveal is the limits of it.
The founders could not have conceived of the world that was coming. They certainly did not conceive that their young nation would rule it as a lone super-power. These ideas never entered their minds yet today we have a political system of the 18th century which rules over a 21st century technology, media, economics and the environment.
The flaws of our Presidential election are revealed in what has become an almost unbearable circus of media political blitz and glitz with no substance. Is that what democracy is today? Is democracy not the will of the people in issues that impact their lives or is it a sort of beauty contest where we elect a personification of ourselves every 4 years.
Our technology, especially in communications over the internet, has vastly increased since 1776, is it not time to look at the entire structure of democracy after this election? The fundamental question really is what is democracy today?
