Distortions in Democracy
What does it mean to be an American today? Sounds like a writing assignment for a fifth grade English class, right? I’m asking this question because I don’t think the majority of Americans actually think about being American; they are just simply American. I, like most Americans, can say without a doubt, “I know what it is when I see it!” But the question is, “when’s the last time you saw it?” Did you see it during the last televised presidential debates or during the national elections? Or, maybe you saw it on the front page of your daily newspaper, an organized institution dedicated to reporting all of the news all of the time, without bias or spin? More than likely being an American is just a feeling you have when you wake up in the morning, when you brush your teeth and eat your Wheaties, and then go to work to earn a paycheck. But outside the accepted trappings of being an American, the things that I have come to identify as uniquely American are being altered and some things have been changed clandestinely under the guise of protecting me and mine from terrorist aggression. Americans are gullibly and tacitly accepting curbs to their freedom and democracy without question. I am more than mildly disturbed by many of these changes; changes that have winnowed away at our foundation of democracy yet remain unchallenged by a so-called “free people.”
Once upon a time, just a few short decades ago and years after the stain of yellow journalism, the press and the mainstream media flexed their muscles and ferreted out stories which resulted in the “public good” while exposing corruption in government and commerce. For some obscure reason, the mainstream press and tabloids began to meld their stories and their style of reporting the news. News organizations felt it was far better to report on the illicit sex lives of men running for president, or on the addictions of the children of a democratic female senator who was running as vice president. The medium began to devolve even further by elevating heinous crimes and criminals to front page celebrity, while ignoring important world-wide, national, or local issues. As the push for advertising dollars increased, the press and the news media became more and more “fluff” oriented and dedicated its valuable time to sensationalized stories, filled with either stories about celebrities, the rich and famous, or gruesome tales of torture and murder. The news, whether in print or aired on local or national news channels, is the biggest source of fear in our society today.
A new leaf sprouted in the media in the last few years. The press and the media have long been accepted as the foundation of liberalism in this country, the seat of our First Amendment Rights. Yet, our media, like the baby Bells, has been sold and purchased and resold again. The picture of the media complex within the United States has changed from being owned by many different people with divergent ideas, to being owned by very few conglomerates or very few extremely wealthy individuals with very similar ideas. This change in ownership from many to few has produced a concentration of ‘sameness’ on the media, a pallor that has clearly resulted in the distortion of our democracy.
The major media of course, sees nothing wrong with its current practices or rather, non-practices. The major media cannot relate to, nor respond to how its past ease of being able to put the White House and its business under close scrutiny has been denied or blindsided by an administration that feels it doesn’t need oversight from anyone or anything. The press can neither, or possibly, does not wish to accurately report on what the impact of the current administration has had on the citizens ‘right to know.’ From ‘free speech zones’ to a planted ‘journalist’ during White House News Conferences, each incident has been largely ignored by the accepted purveyors of information and truth. If said information (truth told with spin) is reported, the story is hidden deep inside the back pages of the newspaper, its placement a clear indication of its worthiness and importance.
The media has become the tool of corporations, groups with clear agendas, and of course, the entertainment industry. The media is the most sensationalized instrument on the streets of America today. Common, horrific crimes find their way to the front pages of news stories, and the perpetrators of these acts become famous and their victims sainted. If only the media would spend as much time reporting on real issues in our lives, such as the rising deficit, the continuing war in Iraq (which has been relegated to the back pages of most daily news papers), the availability of jobs that pay a living wage, the trade deficit, and our true position in the rest of the world. What about the Patriot Act? Where are the journalists who can provide everyday Americans with adequate information and truth about something other than the Academy Awards ceremony or what happened today during Michael Jackson’s trial?
Once upon a time, just a few short decades ago and years after the stain of yellow journalism, the press and the mainstream media flexed their muscles and ferreted out stories which resulted in the “public good” while exposing corruption in government and commerce. For some obscure reason, the mainstream press and tabloids began to meld their stories and their style of reporting the news. News organizations felt it was far better to report on the illicit sex lives of men running for president, or on the addictions of the children of a democratic female senator who was running as vice president. The medium began to devolve even further by elevating heinous crimes and criminals to front page celebrity, while ignoring important world-wide, national, or local issues. As the push for advertising dollars increased, the press and the news media became more and more “fluff” oriented and dedicated its valuable time to sensationalized stories, filled with either stories about celebrities, the rich and famous, or gruesome tales of torture and murder. The news, whether in print or aired on local or national news channels, is the biggest source of fear in our society today.
A new leaf sprouted in the media in the last few years. The press and the media have long been accepted as the foundation of liberalism in this country, the seat of our First Amendment Rights. Yet, our media, like the baby Bells, has been sold and purchased and resold again. The picture of the media complex within the United States has changed from being owned by many different people with divergent ideas, to being owned by very few conglomerates or very few extremely wealthy individuals with very similar ideas. This change in ownership from many to few has produced a concentration of ‘sameness’ on the media, a pallor that has clearly resulted in the distortion of our democracy.
The major media of course, sees nothing wrong with its current practices or rather, non-practices. The major media cannot relate to, nor respond to how its past ease of being able to put the White House and its business under close scrutiny has been denied or blindsided by an administration that feels it doesn’t need oversight from anyone or anything. The press can neither, or possibly, does not wish to accurately report on what the impact of the current administration has had on the citizens ‘right to know.’ From ‘free speech zones’ to a planted ‘journalist’ during White House News Conferences, each incident has been largely ignored by the accepted purveyors of information and truth. If said information (truth told with spin) is reported, the story is hidden deep inside the back pages of the newspaper, its placement a clear indication of its worthiness and importance.
The media has become the tool of corporations, groups with clear agendas, and of course, the entertainment industry. The media is the most sensationalized instrument on the streets of America today. Common, horrific crimes find their way to the front pages of news stories, and the perpetrators of these acts become famous and their victims sainted. If only the media would spend as much time reporting on real issues in our lives, such as the rising deficit, the continuing war in Iraq (which has been relegated to the back pages of most daily news papers), the availability of jobs that pay a living wage, the trade deficit, and our true position in the rest of the world. What about the Patriot Act? Where are the journalists who can provide everyday Americans with adequate information and truth about something other than the Academy Awards ceremony or what happened today during Michael Jackson’s trial?
posted by taylorlee at 4:57 PM
7 Comments:
great piece...mirrors my feelings exactely ...modern americans are on autopilot, expecting the democracy they grew up with, not the deformed one that is in the process of occuring..plz keep spreading the light...
Yes, I agree with that.
Thank you very much, Taylorlee.
To Clarify, I mean that I agree with
Where are the journalists who can provide everyday Americans with adequate information and truth about something other than the Academy Awards ceremony or what happened today during Michael Jackson’s trial?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
"Thank You" for your comments. Your comments help me to keep writing and to know that I am not screaming, alone into the abyss.
Thank you, Taylorlee =) I'm glad that you do :)
I understand that you object to the influence of both the government and wealthy media owners in the contemporary creation and diffusion of ideas. But I have to emphasize that they are not the only active agents in the creation of the news we read and you clearly despise. As educated and open-minded people, we tend to avoid the tabloids and read instead the articles of the New York Times or Salon Magazine. But we cannot ignore the enormous group of Americans we share this great democracy with who have no demand for this type of news. They see an article about Energy policy and one about Britney Spears on the internet and they choose the latter. The reality is that these represent the majority of Americans and they always will no matter how great an education system we create. What I want to stress though is that we have no grounds to ridicule or even criticize these people for making this free choice as to what they want to consume as readers. They too are part of our American culture and that culture must reflect their interests too. If we dismiss their voice as irrational or backward, we essentially exclude them from a democracy that at least ostensibly values each voice equally in its elections. I then conclude that our democracy depends not just on the investigative reports and the muckraking but also on the scandal sheets and the talkshows.
Prerevolutionary France is one of many clear parallels to our current journalistic state in America and throughout the world. In this place, popular culture emerged as a feature of the national media for the one of the first times in history. This national media included books by great thinkers and scholars like Voltaire and Diderot and their rational reading public held unprecedented discussions about politics, religion, and philosophy. But equally vital to the public discourse were the pamphleteers and the cartoonists, men (and often women) who wrote about and drew scandalous trials and obsene rumors for a growing public that was excluded from the learning necessary for understanding the philosophes. What many historians have found is that in the coverage of these sensational trials and the pornogrphaic images depicting Kings and Bishops, there was a growing political dialogue of criticism of the status quo. While philosophes hid their discussions of atheism and republicanism in their libraries and exclusive journals, these pamphlets were being widely distributed in coffeehouses and farmhouses, among men and women. In so doing, these ancient regime versions of Jerry Springer and Nancy Grace exposed all the people of France to discussions in which they had never before been included. In so doing, a truly democratic political culture was created where everyone could express his or her anger with the state or the church by buying a pamphlet with images of the king molesting a nun or a story of a lascivous nobleman who raped a peasant girl with impunity. Most of these stories were not true and certainly reflect discriminatory views of certain social groups, particularly women. But what is important about these early ideas is that they paved the way for the revolution. These media outlets spread the discontent that enabled the eventual fall of the monarchy, an event no rational journalists like Voltaire could ever have caused.
Today in America, we have similar voices who reflect the rhetocal demands of average Americans. Every time someone buys some tabloid newspaper, they too participate in the creation of these cultural values even if the stories they read are untrue. What is true is that people believe them or at least want to believe them. So when the New York Post reports that Laura Bush is divorcing her husband, it reflects a belief on the part of the editors that American sentiment is turning against Bush. This report then is equally important to any investigation found in the Washinton Post. And this is the greatest evidence that we still live in a functioning democracy. Yellow journalism came out of a time period when voter turnout was the greatest in American history. It certainly reflected the cultural values of most Americans. For this reason alone, we need to respect these media outlets. If my college-educated vote still counts ostensibly as much in the political realm as one from a trailer park in Mobile Alabama then my views and consumption of ideas should also have equal cultural weight to such a voice. If the majority of Americans want to hear about sex and scandal more than energy policy then power to them. The Clinton scandal was a return to the cultural involvement of Americans in politics because they were interested enough to consume this idea. In the same way, the news that Louis XVI's penis didn't work reflected increasing interest on the part of the public in politics back before the revolution. I hope people continue to spread rumors about politicians because it is a truly democratic means of participating in public life and shaping our culture. Because in the end, the choice on the part of every American whether he or she will buy the New York Times or the New York Post has an effect on what type of news will be printed. The wealthy owners don't have all the power, it is the consumers who buy their papers. And if there were not a democratic majority who loved scandal, then it wouldn't get printed.
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