Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Uber Alles


"The media is the message" -- Marshall McLuhan

Freedom of the press does not require fiefdom of depress. Yes, the media can responsibly report anything they chose .... even shading things to their political bent. However, the monolithic nature of today's message makers allows outright lies (fake news) that  seem to go beyond what the framers of our constitution had in mind. To this observer, many of our traditional news outlets seem to believe that they should set government policy ... and they are willing to use their megaphones to make this happen ... since they are so much smarter than the people who elected our current government.

This hubris derives from the fact that throughout our national history politicians needed the media to get their message out ... so they cultivated the various media outlets as they were created ... and visa versa. This gave the media tremendous leverage over politicians ... and they became more and more powerful. They became so powerful that they decided to take down a president who was very popular with the American people, Nixon, and they succeeded! Now they thought that their control was absolute ... uber alles.

Enter social media ... which gave politicians the ability to circumvent all the media-controlled conduits and talk directly to the people. One politician grasped this freedom and got himself elected president. Of course, most media now see that their powerful control of messaging is now seriously diminished ... and they are not happy.

So the media is fighting back. Trump is against "freeeom of the press" and a  litany of other Gestapo tactics. They are even pleading with him to give them back their leverage ... see:  Times Up. But until Twitter throttles him in, Trump is going to set his own agenda and deliver his own message ... free from the control that the media used to exert. There will be many attempts to shut this renegade down (Mueller), but, as long as he has access to an unfettered social media platform, this should not happen.

8 comments:

  1. Fox News is the state sponsored real news for POTUS. Never criticized, always loyal. Rupert Murdoch is proudly exerting influence on POTUS.

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    1. You obviously don't watch Shepard Smoth on Fox. I would estimate that 1/4 of the talking heads on Fox are libs. 0% of CNN and MSNBC are on the tight.

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  2. The "failing" NYT subscription numbers are up 63%. You are buying into Trump's idiotic meme. "They are even pleading with him to give them back their leverage ... see: Times Up."
    I clicked on the link. It totally contradicts your characterization of the meeting between NYT publisher and Trump.
    If it is fake news to print the contradictions, inanities and lies uttered by this blowhard president, then I don't know what Truth is.
    Also it is disingenuous to imply that Nixon was an innocent victim of a powerful media. No collusion? No obstruction?

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    1. Nixon was Mother Theresa compared to Obama ...

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    2. Obama had the least corrupt administration since Truman.

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    3. Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, John Brennam, James Clapper, Peter Strzok, Susan Rice, Sally Yates, Lois Lerner, Samantha Powers, Robert Mueller, Lisa Page, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama, etc., etc.

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    4. A partial list of people you don't like is not an argument. List the ones who were convicted of some offense. Like this list of Nixon's admin: John N. Mitchell (R) former United States Attorney General, convicted of perjury. Richard Kleindienst (R) United States Attorney General, convicted of obstruction, given one month in jail.
      H. R. Haldeman (R) White House Chief of Staff, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
      John Ehrlichman (R) former White House Counsel, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
      Egil Krogh (R) United States Undersecretary of Transportation, sentenced to six months.
      John Dean (R) White House Counsel, convicted of obstruction of justice, later reduced to felony offenses and served 4 months.
      Dwight Chapin (R) Secretary to the President of the United States, convicted of perjury.
      Charles Colson (R) Special Counsel to the President for Public Liaison, convicted of obstruction of justice. Served 7 months.
      Spiro Agnew (R) Former Vice President of the United States, convicted of income-tax evasion. Resigned.
      Maurice Stans (R) United States Secretary of Commerce, pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the reporting sections of the Federal Election Campaign Act and two counts of accepting illegal campaign contributions and was fined $5,000. Nixon himself might have been impeached if he had not resigned. Ford pardoned him so he would not be indicted.
      Was that all fake news invented by NYT?
      Afterthought: Jimmy Carter probably had the least corrupt administration.

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    5. No more comments longer than the original post will be allowed ...

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