Such media conglomerates not only focus on the sensational, they set the tone for entire political debates. Built for extreme events such as 9/11 or hurricane Katrina, these entities stretch their reporting when the news cycle runs thin on meaningful content. The result is a host of talk show panels and political pundits, a deep dive into the river of mundane, hyperbolic, highly partisan and hyper-sensationalist rhetoric we’re barraged with in the modern day. They give legitimacy to conspiracy theories before turning them into full witch hunts, willfully overlook blatant corruption from their ideological allies while claiming their opponents are even worse, and use every trick in the book to push their respective agendas.
From the sycophantic rants of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, manipulating a misinformed viewership, to the obvious bias of MSNBC, demeaning anything and everything emerging from the Trump administration as a knee-jerk reaction, these networks exist to sell us ideas. Primary media outlets, especially those in America, don’t give us important, unbiased news. They often fail to even give us less important news for the sake of viewership and advertising revenue.
Our largest, most influential media networks sell us propaganda, ideology, a dog-and-pony show to not only distract us from events and decisions which truly matter, but separate us into artificial camps from which we bite and claw at each other relentlessly. While we, the general populous are busy believing our political rivals are enemies, those truly running the show in our country are busy pushing their agendas through well-connected lobbyists and huge corporate donations to collectively strangle and clutch the balls of our government, all while telling us corruption and inefficiency within our government are the real problems.
It’s undoubtedly true there are tens of billions of tax dollars wasted, misused and unaccounted for every single year in the U.S. alone, while political bribery, apathy and self-interest dilutes the ability of even the most well-intentioned politician to make meaningful change. Bureaucracy is notoriously inefficient and lacks responsiveness to the needs or complaints of the public, and many governmental departments doing good work are severely underfunded, while others become bloated due to their political connections. Government isn’t perfect, but the media rarely discusses measures to improve its function. Instead they nearly inevitably take one of two positions on the topic: the government is too big and needs to get out of everyone’s business, or the government should become larger and do more to help the people.
The final result is we wind up in an endless cycle of interchangeable lying and scheming politicians and lobbyists, the shrinking and enlarging of various programs and departments based on who controls the government, vitriolic political debate from network pundits over details ranging from obnoxiously exaggerated to painfully untrue, and continual disillusionment and disinterest in the political process from a large and ever-growing cross-section of the voting population. All of this dysfunction is by no means an accident, nor is it unavoidable. It is a purposeful and deliberate collective control of the national narrative, and we play right along, knowingly or otherwise. There is no single puppet master holding the strings, but a collaborative and adaptive network advocating for the interests of those truly holding the reins of power at any given time.
The good news is, this dysfunction and political theater is entirely escapable. There are plenty of solid, honest journalism endeavors around America and the world. The Economist, Reuters, ProPublica, Allsides, C-SPAN, and others all provide means to pivot away from the charade and indulge in more investigative, true journalism. We also have the option to tune out, to be incredibly selective about our media input generally. Regardless of your preference, being aware of the political reality before you is key. Watch for bias in the media you consume, and at least attempt to hear various sides of a debate before fully forming your own opinion.
When you hear an argument on Fox News or MSNBC, let it register in the back of your mind this is their job, they are attempting to persuade and influence you. It is your job to become as fully informed as possible before allowing them to do so. It’s far too easy and tempting to be lumped into idealogical tribes, to see Republicans or Democrats as the enemy, but reality is far more complex and nuanced than that. The truth is, those attempting to divide us are the enemy. There are real solutions to the many problems we face, and honest discussion of our disagreements to be had. We can take our power back from the billionaire media moguls, self-interested demagogues and corrupt power brokers of today’s world. We can and will figure our issues out together, one step at a time. All it takes is changing the way we think and act. Simple enough.
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