I had a political science instructor at my community college once tell me that in the realm of political ideologies, Americans are comparatively unified. He then proceeded to show the class a chart with three sections: Radical, Liberal, and Conservative. He then cut a small sliver of the liberal section, and divided it into two more segments: Democrat and Republican. “Americans are all mostly in the middle,” he said. His argument was that there are few monarchists, fascists, or communists in this country. He continued that Americans generally do not discuss dissolving the union and starting over, rather they discuss individual policy changes within an accepted framework: a relatively limited government, free market, and civil liberties. But after watching videos like these, I am starting to believe that this might not be the case for much longer.
During the nineties, the media industry went through a free market explosion with the advent of cable news networks and the internet. Like most free market theory, it sounds like a great idea. Conservatives can watch conservative news, liberals can watch liberal news. After all, it is impossible for people to remain completely unbiased. These outlets have had a profound impact on the way people perceived news and more importantly, their government. The internet and cable T.V reduced the cost of news dramatically, and the click of a mouse or a remote created easier access. As you would expect, demand for news shot through the roof.
I think however that this market is distorted, as it always is when the good is a necessity. In this case, it is a necessity for a republic. After years of market research and trial and error, these companies have discovered that consumers do not actually want news. We want someone to tell us how to think; more than that, we want someone to tell us that the way we think is OK; we want short pithy phrases that we can endlessly repeat, phrases that at some point in history did have significance. Oh… and we also need books every few months that reiterate our aforementioned wants. And the suppliers have dutifully proven apt at answering this demand. But what they are providing is no longer news. We now need media watch groups to check the facts of the media who checks the facts of the government.
Everyone knows the dangers of a government controlled press, but I think it’s time to start paying attention to the consequences of a free market media. I don’t know if people are moving towards communism(left) or fascism(right), but their media certainly is. And products only go where there is demand. I don’t know how much longer or lower the media can go calling their political opposites “tea baggers” and the “anti-christ.” The difficulty is that this is a market that the government cannot and should not go anywhere near. The only regulator left is the people…
In the meantime, after seeing this video, I think I am going to start watch Fox News.
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