My wife and I have recently found Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom in our Amazon Prime instant video list and thought we'd give it a shot. At first I thought it was an interesting way of presenting past events. It clearly shows how the media presents, or fails to present, the news. However, when I heard MSNBC's coverage of Donald Trump last night, I realized that the show was also predicting the future. I realized that Donald Trump is tragedy porn.
What is tragedy porn? Tragedy porn in the media is when news outlets decide to obsessively cover some terrible or strange story of little importance due to the emotional and entertainment value. Covering such stories often goes hand and hand with ignoring stories of great significance to people's daily lives or the nation/world. You can see it in full force in episode 8, titled "The Blackout Part I: Tragedy Porn." Basically, after loosing half their audience in a week from not covering the Casey Anthony trial, the otherwise high minded people running the newscast decide to go back on their principles. Instead of covering the news, they lead with Casey Anthony and Anthony Weiner's twitter exposure. By doing this, they completely ignore that the Republican Congress is about to vote against raising the debt ceiling, potentially sending the world economy into a death spiral.
It was evidenced last night by MSNBC (and others) that Donald Trump is being covered the same way. The newsrooms just couldn't risk cutting away from the tragedy unfolding before our eyes as Donald Trump rambled on about how great he is. Skipping commercial breaks for the same rambling, disastrously entertaining speech we have seen before, but cannot look away from. Donald Trump is being covered as tragedy porn. Donald Trump is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
A Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster, a tragedy. Could we look away while the country ate itself? One side pitted bitterly against the other. United States citizens, children, being forced from their homes and tossed out of the country. People with skill and knowledge being called losers while ignorant know-it-alls run the country. Xenophobia and anti-intellectualism running rampant.
Now, Donald Trump running for president is entertaining, but the only reason his campaign has any national importance is because the media is giving it to him. The obsessive coverage displayed last night was both shameful and annoying as a viewer. Instead of covering the genuinely interesting and important story of Bernie Sanders' speech at Liberty University, I had to listen to Donald Trump ramble yet again about "me, me, me." I decided just to turn it off and they lost me for the night, maybe more.
Contrast this tragedy porn with the story of Bernie Sanders, a presidential contender, speaking directly to those on the other side. Did he go there and call them losers? Did he insult their intelligence? No. He, as an unabashed liberal, went there to make a plea to the other side to come together to stop the terrible division plaguing our country and to argue that income inequality is a moral issue. He did not ask for a compromise, but for a common cause. While I have much doubt about the short term effectiveness of such a strategy, it contrasts strongly with Donald Trump's rhetoric. One thing's for sure though, constructive dialog won't have a chance in hell if the media ignores such events for divisive tragedy porn.
Unfortunately, I didn't hear about this in the television media last night. I heard about Donald Trump and how terrific he thinks he is. While a Donald Trump presidency would be a tragedy, the media should not be covering his campaign this way. It is a disservice to the viewers and the country.