"Media, this is an intervention. We're all really concerned about you, and well we've noticed that you just haven't been yourself for a long time. The quality of your work has gone way down, you make a lot of mistakes, you make us a lot of uncomfortable, and lately you've been really aggressive and making threats to members of the general public. Furthermore, you've been hanging out with some pretty shady characters and for the last 6 or 7 years and taking money under the table. You've been making up some outrageous stories and blaming everyone else for your problems, and that's got to change. That's why we're having this intervention, and all of us are here to confront you about the tactics that you use to manipulate us and control the discussion."
Whether it is home or the workplace, one bad apple spoils the bunch.....
.... We've all been through this with a family member, lover, coworkers, or crazy boss. Your company makes a bad hire or a family member goes off their meds, and for everyone around them, the world stops. One bad hire ruins a successful team, leaving them paralyzed. Relentlessly, they manipulate everyone around them into a web of secrecy and fear, and suddenly life is a tangled web of accusations and paranoia. The accusations and paranoia
makes everyone afraid of talking about what everyone knows, and this becomes the "elephant in the living room," the issue that everyone ignores to preserve a little peace
People that grow up in dysfunctional families are trained to ignore and even cover up the bad behavior of their family members. There is a powerful taboo against pointing out abuse. Inevitably, some family members form an alliance with the abuser, and anyone that complains is often attacked by the rest of the family. The ankle-biting pundits have taken that last step, and now they actively attack anyone that complains.
Traditionally, the press is given a special status because they are supposd to be the truth-tellers who protect us from governmental abuse. They fill the role of family counselors or social workers who sort out dysfunctional families. But the ankle-biting media pundits are more like the family member who forms an alliance with the parent that is abusing the other kids. It is now the manipulative codependent in the dysfunctional family drama that is American politics. Luckily, a lot of us can spot the symptoms, and while we can expect to be attacked for pointing them out, there are probably enough of us to make a difference.
Traditionally, we think of the media as truth tellers, sort of like Humphrey Bogart as the private eye Sam Spade. Spade was a hard drinking, cynical little man, who had sympathy for real vicitms and contempt for the liars. And when he confronted evil-doers, he laid the cards on the table, exposing their secrets, and he laughed right in their faces with a strange compulsive laugh that was almost a giggle. They tried to buy him off, or they sent women to seduce him. They tried to make him work for them, like the child who makes an alliance with one of the parents. Children make these alliances for various reasons - to survive, to try to calm down the situation, or to become the family enforcer who gets to bully the rest of the family. Today we see members of the media who have abandoned the Sam Spade role and joined the gangsters, who have given up trying to help their families and become a family bully. Instead of news, they smear anyone that shows an interest in the truth.
So let's just go down the list of warning signs that you stumbled into a dysfunctional family situation, and we'll see whether we missed anything. As always, you may want to get a snack first...
1) Bullying - This was what got this train of thought started. We have always seen the right's obsession with the most trivial forms of dissent. It started with 9/11, when anyone that questioned the rush to war was attacked as unpatriotic and crazy. At first, this was directed at celebrities and high-profile critics like Michael Moore, but as time went on, the media attacks have filtered down to the man in the street. Through 2005, Fox had what I called the "traitor of the week," often someone relatively powerless like a school teacher. Lately, we have seen attacks on 9/11 widows and the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. The various types of attacks are discussed below.
2) "Triangling" - a family counseling term for complaining about someone else. (this is not to be confused with Democratic "Triangulation," of political positions) In a marriage, Triangling this would be a situation where one partner complains obsessively about their partner to third parties. A common form is when one parent complains to one of the children about the other parent. Or a parent will single out one their children as the "bad child," (often the one with the most potential) complaining relentlessly about the child to teachers and relatives. Many times, this is merely a way for the person making the complaints to conceal their own mental illness and dishonesty, and the person being called a "monster" is often doing their best to make things work, and not infrequently, the "monster" is actually the care-giver for ther emotionally ill partner. And a big part of triangling is making stuff up, and the person getting blamed doesn't get to defend themselves because all of this occurs behind their backs.. And the bigger the scam the complainer is planning, the more outrageous the accusation is, so that everyone else is afraid to talking about it, thus spreading the circle of secrecy.
Traingling is proably the MAIN activity of the ankle-biting political "analysts" in the United States. And in this case, their "monster" is the Democrats. All too often they are talking about the Demoicrats rather than talking to the Democrats. In the recent case of Ann Coulter, the media joined her in triangling or talking about the "liberals" but they did not talk to the people they were smearing. Triangling is the central activity of dysfunctional systems.
3) "He said/she said" is another symptom of an abusive person. Facts, such as what actually happened, or accomplishments are rarely discussed. Instead, most discussions revolve around who said what. Anyone that has had to deal with a mentally ill family member is familiar with the endless game of he said/she said, in which any change or flexibility is proof of weakness. For He said/she said, check out threads at any conservative website that turn into endless hairsplitting.
One step beyond this is "You think...." in which the abuser accuses others of having bad thoughts. I don't think that this has caught on with the media, because it is just too ridiculous, but the government has been flirting with variations on this in its antiterrorism programs. If you are ever involved with someone that says "You think...," you may want to move and change your phone number.
4) Making stuff up - Again we can see how the media does this endlessly, accusing Democrats of saying things they never said, or complaining about the way they say sometthing, or just complaining that their feelings are hurt by the things democrats say (see false outrage).
An important form of "making stuff up" under Karl Rove has been "the pot calling the kettle black" . A thief will almost always accuse others of stealing, so that the wrong people become suspects. A liar accuses others of lying. And a person who is deeply worried about their own mental health calls anyone and everyone "crazy." In 2004, W was vulnerable on his military service, so they Swift Boated Kerry.And then there was accusing the demcrats of being weak on national security even though our border remain wide open. Latest word is that Rove wants to paint Democrats as vote stealers.
5) Generalizations or "You always do that!" It's one thing to accuse someone of doing something, but what fun is that if they might just apologize and not do it again? Nope, it's better to accuse someone of something that they've never done, because that way there is no way for them to stop doing it. Better yet, accuse them of always doing it.
6) Smears and Ad Hominem attacks - These are outrageous attacks on a persons character. The media has become a conduit for the GOP's talking points, which are often little more than personal smears. Critics of the war were accused of "Hating America," "Wanting to see our troops killed," or "Supporting terrorism." And in an election year, Coulter is showing that even widows are fair game.
7) Fake outrage - this is a big part of justifying the smear tactics. It might start with a little "he said/she said" and it ramps up from there. In this way, they can simply make stuff up and then work themselves into a rage typical of an addict or borderline personality disorder. Fake outrage is huge part of the alcoholic family to keep people under constant threat, and especially effective in making the children keep secrets. If you're catching on, you may have already realized that this sums up the NY Times flap in which Bush and Cheney are outraged that the times "exposed" a program that the administration had bragged about at least a dozen times, and that this was an attenmpt to directly intimidate the media in an election year.
Fake outrage (or real outrage) is usually the repsonse to any criticism. Any complaint directed at the abuser, the abuser can justify intensifies attacks on the victim by saying "You said something that upset me." Futhermore the abuser then goes to other people to complain "He always says terrible thing" (like "stop hitting me in front of the kids."). In this way, the "he said/she said" transitions over to triangling.
Bill O'Reilly makes his living on this stuff. He selects a guest who has said something he can disagree with and launches into his fake outrage routine. A lot of people just go along with it as their only chance to ever go on television.
And the really funny thing is, if his guest is one of his liberal regulars, O'Reilly often ends his tirade on a very friendly note, showing how fake his outrage really is. People who aren't Bill's fans would say "Well why would I believe him about anything when he is such a big fake," which entirely misses the point. His viewers are comfortable with Bill and his fake outrage, because that's what their lives are like. Real emotion are for suckers. In the same way, an abuser or alcoholic might tell a policeman or social worker "Sure I threatened them, but I was just joking around."
8) Neurotic Alliances - A really savvy family counselor or social services worker will see through the fake outrage and excuses. But if the abusive parent has formed alliances in the family to back up their stories ("Oh yes he always criticizes her, that's why she drinks and can't hold a job, it's the criticism."), it can be very hard to untangle this web. A common scenario is when a parent drinks or abuses a child, the rest of the family is required to keep this a secret. Notice the Malkin/Hannity/Coulter/Rush League of Bullshit that is an alliance of characters willing to repeat each others wild stories. There is nothing on the Left like this.
Of course, sick people can't beat up everyone else in the world, so they spend a great deal of time promoting themselves to strangers. When people tell you how honest they are, in contrast to all those liars, beware. This is the sick member of the family. O'Reilly constantly testifies to his own personal integrity, and lately we have been hearing OReilly and others saying that Ann Coulter is 100% truthful, not like those liars on the left (see pot calling the kettle black). Remember, this was also a big part of W's 2000 campaign. In 2000 I knew we were in for a rough ride, because when someone needs other people to say that they are honest, it's a huge red flag. In this role, the media is like the drunk's enabler in an alcoholic family.
9) Demands for apologies. When an alcoholic is backed into a corner and the threat of violence is unavailable, they will demand that other people "apologize" to them. This is a demand that other people take responsibility for all problems. If Sean Hannity has built a career on 30 seconds of material, demanding that people apologize to the president is about 15 seconds of it. Conservatives demanding an apology has become such a cliché that Stephan Colbert has made this part of his routine.
10) Damned if you do/damned if you don't - This is a staple of the media and dysfunctional families everywhere. Democrats are routinely attacked for being too weak AND too shrill at the same time, or too divided AND marching in ideological lock step. In the dysfuntional family, the aggressor picks something like trash bags and say s "You stole the trash bags I bought" and you might say "Well I used them to take out the trash...." So then you are afraid to take out the trash, so predictably you will be attacked for not taking it out.
11) "Magical thinking" - Stephen Colberthas called this "truthiness," when people believe what pleases them. Contradict these beliefs with facts, and you will be attacked.
12) The alcoholics grandiose need to be "better." The goal of beating up other people is for the sick person to convince the world that they are "better." They are smarter, kinder, more generous, and more caring than anyone, and the closer they are to complete collapse and being packed off to rehab, the more important this becomes. And the less capable and articulate an elected official is, the more the press is likely to fawn over them. Increasingly, our media superstars are an array of failed lawyers, failed writers, failed academics, and failed politicians who have gone on to become journalists only to find out that the world regards the whole lot of them as failed journalists and moral sell-outs. This is their greatest fear, that they're inferiorities are real. Increasingly, they spend their time interviewing each other (see "neurotic alliances") instead of risking interactions with people that would make them look foolish. The MSM is moved to fury by academics or private citizens who make valid points, and like a drunk nearing rehad, they are getting more beligerent about it (see "false outrage"). Using fake outrage to appear upset proves that the other person is bad and that the addict is "better," and that people who tell the truth are bad and will be punished (see 13).
13) Attacking the truth tellers. Just as the entire family may defend the drunk and attack anyone who tells the truth, the media attacks the watchdogs like Media Matters and defends it Coulters. It attacks by denying them airtime, misquoting them, and calling the crazy. Michael Moore wishes he could get 1% of the time that is spent talking about him (triangling) or how he said it (He said/she said), and how it hurts the feelings of conservatives (fake outrage).
Maintaining the constant sense of threat stifles dissent or open discussion. This is very much the atmosphere of the dysfunctional family that creates a lifetime of repression and anxiety. And it has become the model for operating the country.
The real question for the Democrats is why are they so unable to call out the GOP on these rhetorical tricks? Is it because they are so codependent that it is an emtional taboo? Or is it because the Beltway election consultants are pledged to make this voodoo and never do a "Penn and Teller" where they show how the tricks are done?