The Garden

At the risk of making a hasty generalization, I am going to go ahead and suggest that virtually everything publicized about the ongoing Presidential race is little else but a meaningless waste of time; it is not genuine, it is not informative and it certainly is not important.

First of all, the race has everything to do with popularity and nothing to do with ideas. Candidates are scrutinized for who they are rather than for what they think. Personal issues are brought to the fore for media pundits to belabor at length, and naïve citizens interpret this gossip as if it were pertinent and important. Candidates are portrayed as icons or celebrities instead of careful, intelligent thinkers. And, as a result, the Presidential race, which ought to be a forum for good ideas and informed debate, instead becomes a stage for celebrity gossip, personal insults, and comparisons over looks, toughness and “likeability.” This is not good. In fact, it’s embarrassing. One of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy is the exchange of good ideas. Politicians and political systems depend on prudence, insight and deliberation for their successful functioning; unfortunately, the race for our country’s highest office has been reduced to a glorified episode of “reality” television where candidates compete for acceptance through publicity stunts, cunning advertising campaigns and catchy slogans. None of this should be taken seriously.

Secondly, the mass media does everything to exacerbate this problem and nothing to alleviate it. The mass media is, by its nature, a for-profit business. That is to say, every single U.S. mass media outlet is primarily concerned with selling advertising space and attracting viewers. That is priority number one. The mass media is also the principal conduit through which the general public accesses the Presidential race. It is therefore in the mass media’s best interest to ensure that the Presidential race is as enticing and entertaining as possible for its viewers; so as to maximize profits. This fact, unfortunately, has devastating effects for the citizen who is concerned with the welfare of his or her nation-state; that is, the one who would like to know, in considerable detail, what and where the best ideas are for ensuring the welfare of the country. There is little reason to believe that the for-profit nature of the media in any way enhances the quality and substance of a Presidential race. And, in fact, the current coverage of the Presidential race verifies this. Notice how quickly Sarah Palin was promoted to “superstar” status literally overnight, despite her political ideas being relatively unknown. This could not have been accomplished without the deliberate portrayal of Palin as big and important by the mass media.

Media outlets have borrowed techniques from the entertainment industry and have characterized this race as a battle between “teams” in a way not too different from professional sports presentations. Media consumers are meant to pick a “side” and cheer for their favorite “players” in the heated competition that is the Presidential race. Polls are used to keep “score” of who’s “winning” and candid cameras, as well as on-the-spot interviews, make for great behind the scenes “in the locker room” footage. This is all presented with flashy computer graphics, dramatic music and “Breaking News Alert!” headlines to dupe the audience into thinking they are being informed while they are merely being entertained. Media consumers have largely embraced the idea that matters of political importance can be reduced to little more than celebrity gossip, where judgments are made based on vacuous topics such as looks, faith, age, skin color, stage-presence, family history, interpersonal relationships, etc. Framing the Presidential race in this way seeks to make the candidates more personally accessible to the audience, so that the audience feels like they “know” the candidates. This is no different from the way Hollywood celebrities are personalized by pop-culture. It makes for great entertainment of course, but it does nothing to further the spread of good ideas and sound judgments.

Perhaps it is time for Americans to realize that the exchange of good ideas is not always entertaining, and that no matter how personally public figures are portrayed in the media, you will never really “know” these people like you know your friends and family. To believe that you can judge the quality of an idea by judging the person carrying it is a tragic mistake.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 19:57 and is filed under Ranger News Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.