The Grand Illusion
Here’s a letter I’d like to send, but which I’ll just post, because it will have the same impact. That is, no impact at all.
Dear Media –
Would you please stop giving Donald Trump moment-to-moment continuous campaign exposure?
Are you so stupid to think that all your negative coverage of Trump is doing anything but boosting his image – or perhaps we’re stupid in believing that you’re interested in presenting the news rather than obsessed with gathering every last viewer and every last penny of advertising revenue, regardless of the effect on the nation… and likely the world.
Like every bully, Trump’s reveling in the attention, and every attack results in more voters and more donations.
You’ve even aired shows describing that effect, but you keep up attacking and analyzing, as if that would do anything. The only thing that would have any possible effect would be a Trump news blackout or brief bulletins saying, “Trump Made Another Legal Motion Just Like All the Others.”
But you’ll keep on, regardless of the consequences, and I won’t even be able to tell you that I told you so, because once he becomes President, he’ll likely abolish you as Fake News, unless you can fawn enough to become his de facto ministry of propaganda.
Sincerely,
What made me think about this was something my publisher, Tom Doherty, told me more than twenty-five years ago, when I worried about a not-so-good review one of my books had gotten.
He said, “There’s no such thing as a bad review. Even bad reviews increase sales. The attention helps.”
For years, I had my doubts, but Donald Trump has proved that Tom Doherty was right.
Trump certainly gets a boost from any kind of publicity with his base, but I don’t believe that’s true of the rest of the country.
Let me point out that Trump did not win re-election. In 2016, there were folks in the middle that took a chance that his blustering, bullying, persona could be an effective President. In 2020, those folks broke the other way, despite the fact that he ran pretty much the same exact campaign as in 2016. And it’s pretty much the same campaign he’s running now.
I wouldn’t say that the election is decided either way at this point, but I think that there are parts of the electorate that are less swayed by the negative baggage that Trump is carrying.
There’s an old saying: “The crooked dealer only stays in town one night.” Because people have memories and they realize over time that they are being conned.
“Donald Trump has proved that Tom Doherty was right.”
Oh, look, he’s good for something after all!
He’s also good for actually making me miss George W. Bush, something I would never have believed possible.
Very true, Darcherd!
I hesitate to say anything about a Republican president these days. From Nixon on, I found myself thinking, “Ok, now they’ve hit rock bottom.”
Wow, I was so wrong.
The job of CEO of a multinational corporation; obtaining a profit, expanding the customer base, paying of the investors year after year, is a tough job.
The job of Prime Minister, President, who is the CEO of a nation; maintaining and improving the infrastructure, increasing citizens quality of life, convincing the electorate to give you more time to do what is necessary for the national future, is tougher. If only because one has more individuals who feel ‘left out’ or ‘neglected’ than the other.
Even when a leader has 20 to 80 expert ‘advisors’ to draw on instead of perhaps 8 to 12 ‘board’ members such policy decisions are complex to say the least. The opinion of us ‘armchair’ experts’ on these CEO/leaders of nations is really an opinion on the system they use to obtain their experts and the pool of such they choose to draw from.
As far as US Presidents are concerned we need to remember that they are human, can only draw talent from our nation’s citizens, and then only those they can communicate with comprehension. Democrats and Republicans are limited to the same extent and hamstrung practically by their party ideologies. By kind to our web-footed friends – tip them over; don’t shoot them!
I admit that I started off with an opinion similar to LEM’s about the media and Trump. There is no doubt that citizen voters get their ideas about candidates from what they see, hear, and read via media. So I thought I had our excuse for what we did in 2016.
However I am increasingly aware of the percent of fake news and outright lies put out from one source of the media and echoed in different ways by every other source. This does increase the people exposure to propaganda but it also increases the potential for correction of outright lies; which is a benefit for those (the “masses”) who need exposure to the truth because they do not have the time nor the leisure to do their own critical analysis.
So my initial analysis was appropriate to 1933 but I am not sure that it is appropriate for the social media conditions of 2023.
A democracy must have “freedom” of speech to the extent of allowing political points of view expression but then also the opportunity to correct propaganda. Authoritarian nations both secular and ideological can only tolerate propaganda and would thus restrict “freedom” of the media. So I will just mute the celebrity.