Hear me out. Maybe its not the influence of the mainstream media that results in Americans being afflicted with poor governance. While there is ample evidence to support the notion that the American media is captured by oligarchic/corporatist and profit-driven forces (or as the nutbag right contends, an extreme liberal bias among journalists), the current Sharpie lunacy has opened my mind to a different theory. Perhaps despite any inherent biases, perhaps the way Americans feel about their leaders is more a result of our collective shallowness than the effect of bias in the media. Here’s what got me to this epiphany.
Howard Dean was the front runner until a seemingly random occurrence — a goofy war whoop — sunk his campaign as the media piled on to replay the absurd cheer ad nauseum.
Similarly, Mike Dukakis was running an effective campaign until his turn as a toy soldier with a helmet too big for his dome was shown repeatedly by the media and widespread mocking ensued.
Dan Quayle was for some inexplicable reason, and despite being an obviously empty vessel, considered a competent candidate for high office until he misspelled “Potato” and immediately, the media seemed to render him unfit — publicizing his spelling error over and over.
Bush I campaign laid blame for his failed re-election at the feet of the media who, as they tell it, unfairly repeated his “No New Taxes” footage to hammer him for having the temerity to change policy course and actually raise taxes.
In each of these examples, the supposed culprit is the nefarious Free Press which clearly must have a partisan axe to grind (into whose skull depends on which way you might lean ideologically).
The current hoo hah over the Alabama Hurricane Sharpie incident changed my thinking. This is an incompetent, ignorant, racist, moronic fuckstick who likely stole his election with help from a foreign enemy. He has revealed himself to be a sexual abuser, a white supremacist, a philanderer, a draft dodger, a liar, a tax cheat, a thin skinned narcissistic bully, etc. Yet, for two plus years, his daily torrent of lies, fuckups, and assorted appalling acts — all of which covered extensively in the press — has not made a dent in his ability to retain his position.
Today, though, it feels different. The absolute idiocy of the Sharpie-gate controversy seems to be a tipping point (although I have said this about scores of other horrifying actions he’s inflicted upon the world and that did not sink his rubber dingy). How is it that this one, goofy, seemingly insignificant act of self-important, thin-skinned stupidity be the action that makes the tide turn?
I’m beginning to believe that the American public, our collective zeitgeist, is so dumbed down that we only respond to the absurd, the mindless, the least relevant slights or transgressions against common decency and truth. After all, the media couldn’t sink him for literally thousands of transgressions, any one of which would have sunk any prior political operation. It may not be the media pulling the strings.
It may just be that as a society, we’re too focused on entertainment at the expense of intellect. In short, Media, it isn’t you, it’s us!