Ever since Governor Sarah Palin took center stage in 2008, I have found her a fascinating figure in national politics. But her most significant relationship is not with politics – it’s with the press. Following her every step with an alarming urgency, the media obsesses over her – but they have not always been entirely accurate while doing so, and are rarely kind to the most controversial VP candidate in recent memory (sorry Joe). But woe is them, because for that, she has punished them with a frightening, reputation-wrecking label: the LSM, or “lamestream media.” But beyond the rather strange nature of the nickname, perhaps the former governor may have a point – the media’s obsession with Palin is part of what makes it apparent that they are anything but, as FOX calls itself proudly, “fair and balanced”.
As we have seen over the last few elections, the American mainstream media has definitely felt the need to pick sides. Superfluous opinion panels made of nonrepresentative experts slant the discourse, which is more concerned with bus trips than gas prices, with controversy than cooperation. CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, the three main cable news networks, have lost sight of what is truly important. Their agendas are now, unfortunately, glaringly obvious. Unless one prefers to have their facts flavored a certain way, it might be time to reconsider whether the media can any longer be trusted.
Well, what happened? Perhaps you might remember another famous slogan from FOX News: “We report, you decide.” I, for one, have always found that hard to believe, and have adapted these variations on that slogan to suit the main three:
FOX News: “We report, we decide.” FOX News is known for its blatantly Republican, President-bashing spin and convenient faux-pas that make many question the authenticity of its information and journalistic integrity. From the ubiquitous gaffe that slandered the President’s name to the recent use of Tina Fey’s image in a story on Sarah Palin, and Mr. O’Reilly’s now-famous “you can’t explain that” and his unfortunate use of the term “pinhead” to label his opponents, to the now-famous Chris Wallace-President Clinton interview where he openly exposed their biases, FOX has not much of a reputation outside its fanbase. FOX both decides what you should be told and then tells you what you should think about it.
CNN: “You report, you decide.” CNN, unfortunately, seems to be guilty of the deadly sin of sloth. CNN is becoming rather notorious for depending on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to provide them with news. The twitter questions at the recent GOP debate are only the most recent manifestation. Here’s a question for CNN: when did tweets – nay, re-tweets – become news? When did you decide it would make more sense for so-called “iReporters” to send blurry cell phone videos in from around the country rather than actually doing some reporting yourself? Depending on social media isn’t cool, it’s lazy. If my friends’ status updates were news, I wouldn’t go on CNN.com. Even worse with CNN is the fact that they, too, have a liberal slant, as witnessed by their rather ridiculous coverage of the Republicans (ask the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart), but unlike MSNBC, they are unwilling to be open about their biases. With no more deep James Earl Jones voice to comfort them, they wallow in the insecurity of their “we’re in the middle” illusion by asking debate questions like “Coke or Pepsi?”
MSNBC: “We decide, you decide.” MSNBC has a way of putting things together that makes them seem at once pretentious, didactic, and suffocating. If you are in their boat, it’s great television – you instantly get the “we’re smart, you’re smart, we all think smart things” vibe, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much sense they seem to be making. But, if you disagree with them – and someone help you if you do – all of a sudden you break through the illusion. See the recent controversy on blatantly false reporting on the flag code, for example, which accused the entire Palin bus trip of being illegal – to someone who just watches MSNBC, that would just be one more sign of Palin’s supposed incompetence. With personalities like Ed Schultz not even shy of straight-up yelling on air, MSNBC is way out in the open about being a left-wing network. But they’re the least popular of the three; it’s probably because they try so little to win any viewers in the center. Perhaps it’s because liberals get their news online (tweeting tips to CNN while they’re at it). Perhaps only the “liberal elite” can afford to have it on cable. We may never know.
So, perhaps the media has become, well, and I say it with reservation, “lamestream.” But is it broken? I wouldn’t think so. What as viewers will just continue to do what we’ve been doing – read as many different sources as we can get – “all of them”, if you may – so we can run our own filters and sift the slant from the straight-talk.
But for now, media, let’s get back to those emails – it’s a pity they only back up what Palin’s been saying all along.
Photo credit: Jeff Maurone, August 24, 2007, via Wikimedia Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSNBC_NJ_HQ_Studio_1.jpg