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August 13, 2008
Exclusive: Warning To MSM: The Public May Be Smarter Than You Think!
We have all been patronized at some time or another in our lives. Somewhere along the line, someone looked you straight in the eye and said something like “Don’t worry, I will show you how this is done” or “I know you don’t understand this right now, but….” As a minority, I get this kind of treatment on a regular basis. If truth be told, I would rather listen to an Archie Bunker-style prejudiced imbecile than a crafty, elitist and patronizing two-face. After all, the first kind of jerk poses less of a threat because he or she is so obvious, so plainly ignorant and biased. It is the second, sneaky type that comes to you with bright smiles, friendly words and pats on the back that you better watch out for.
If liberals love to portray conservatives as the first kind of biased fools, then it is completely ironic that these same liberals are most often the second kind. They come at you with friendly handshakes and warm greetings even as they treat you like some sort of idiot or incompetent. You end up wondering if they actually believe that their purpose in life is to enlighten deprived fools like yourself or, on the contrary, if they cynically play this façade in an effort to manipulate and use you as wished. The third possibility, of course, is that they merely want to fulfill their self-perception as noble souls out to rescue deprived masses.
The mainstream media (MSM), a bastion of liberalism if ever there was one, patronizes the American public on a regular basis, patting us on the head while saying “Don’t worry, we will tell you what is true or false and how to see and think things through accurately.” Consequently, these people will tell us that Barack Obama is this and that, is interesting because of such and such and should be our voting choice due to this or that issue or reason.
Past Experiences Bring Cynical Public
Unfortunately for the MSM, the American public has grown cynical in recent years as examples of media bias, fabrication and absurd spin have bubbled into a regular event. In case you have not noticed, news sources such as the New York Times print all the news it sees fit to print rather than all the news that is “fit to print.”
Be it the Iraq war, the actions of some conservative politician or ignoring negative stories about favored liberals, the MSM now shapes the news into their preferred shape before distributing the information to the masses. Unfortunately for these pseudo-journalists, the public is as informed, curious and cynical as ever. Such a public is sickened by MSM attempts to fashion and shape objective reality into their subjective fables.
Saturated Lies Counterproductive
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that 48% of those polled felt that they had heard too much about Obama as compared to McCain. This finding runs counter to the MSM’s obvious belief that bashing people over the head with certain perceptions will eventually make those people think that the perceptions are objective truth. This belief is foolish for two reasons. First, people have access to much more information and discussion of key issues and views in today’s world than ever before thanks to the Internet. Second, these same people have long realized that the media is no so much in the business of providing information as shaping it to their selective taste and agenda.
Once your target audience is suspicious of your sincerity and motives, powdering them with your views and conclusions only serves to further alienate that audience. That is what has happened regarding Barack Obama. Furthermore, many people become suspicious of someone’s qualifications when the media keeps declaring that said person is, indeed, the most qualified. This is all based on the subconscious perception that qualified people let their skills do the talking and those who need to constantly remind us of their qualifications are probably not so qualified at all.
If liberals love to portray conservatives as the first kind of biased fools, then it is completely ironic that these same liberals are most often the second kind. They come at you with friendly handshakes and warm greetings even as they treat you like some sort of idiot or incompetent. You end up wondering if they actually believe that their purpose in life is to enlighten deprived fools like yourself or, on the contrary, if they cynically play this façade in an effort to manipulate and use you as wished. The third possibility, of course, is that they merely want to fulfill their self-perception as noble souls out to rescue deprived masses.
The mainstream media (MSM), a bastion of liberalism if ever there was one, patronizes the American public on a regular basis, patting us on the head while saying “Don’t worry, we will tell you what is true or false and how to see and think things through accurately.” Consequently, these people will tell us that Barack Obama is this and that, is interesting because of such and such and should be our voting choice due to this or that issue or reason.
Past Experiences Bring Cynical Public
Unfortunately for the MSM, the American public has grown cynical in recent years as examples of media bias, fabrication and absurd spin have bubbled into a regular event. In case you have not noticed, news sources such as the New York Times print all the news it sees fit to print rather than all the news that is “fit to print.”
Be it the Iraq war, the actions of some conservative politician or ignoring negative stories about favored liberals, the MSM now shapes the news into their preferred shape before distributing the information to the masses. Unfortunately for these pseudo-journalists, the public is as informed, curious and cynical as ever. Such a public is sickened by MSM attempts to fashion and shape objective reality into their subjective fables.
Saturated Lies Counterproductive
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that 48% of those polled felt that they had heard too much about Obama as compared to McCain. This finding runs counter to the MSM’s obvious belief that bashing people over the head with certain perceptions will eventually make those people think that the perceptions are objective truth. This belief is foolish for two reasons. First, people have access to much more information and discussion of key issues and views in today’s world than ever before thanks to the Internet. Second, these same people have long realized that the media is no so much in the business of providing information as shaping it to their selective taste and agenda.
Once your target audience is suspicious of your sincerity and motives, powdering them with your views and conclusions only serves to further alienate that audience. That is what has happened regarding Barack Obama. Furthermore, many people become suspicious of someone’s qualifications when the media keeps declaring that said person is, indeed, the most qualified. This is all based on the subconscious perception that qualified people let their skills do the talking and those who need to constantly remind us of their qualifications are probably not so qualified at all.
Hunger for the Other Side
The general public’s cynicism and disbelief in the integrity and objectivity of the MSM is further illustrated by its accompanying desire for the other story, the contrast to that MSM’s packaged and superficial truth. Consequently, we see why a book written by David Fredosso, a reporter for National Review Online, called The Case Against Barack Obama, would be so popular.
This book touches on numerous areas and arguments that the MSM will not dare investigate or report on regarding Barack Obama.
This hunger for stories that counter the MSM’s spin is what fuels the popularity of such books.
Simply put, the general public has had it with the patronizing MSM which tries to determine what is or is not important, relevant, useful or informative and reports such news accordingly.
Conclusion
Success and failure in any election is often a combination of message, messenger, method and timing. While the MSM can often spin the message and the method as they see fit and portray the messenger as it prefers to do so, timing is a great wildcard in this entire process.
In its enthusiasm to convince us that Barack Obama is the best thing since pizza, the MSM may have buried their propaganda serving in too much pepper, and the public is finding the whole offering a bit too harsh for consumption.
With the election still a few months away, unless the MSM modifies or rethinks their biased theme in some substantial way, it will alienate enough undecided voters away from Obama to make their entire media campaign backfire against him.
It is perhaps the most ironic and amusing lesson of this early part of the general campaign that the candidate who has flashed change as his mantra now needs to follow his own advice and change his strategy and exposure level before relevant voters change the channel for good.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Gabriel Garnica, Esq., is a college professor who holds a law degree from New York University. Write him at gbgmyarticles@yahoo.com.
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