The mainstream media's impact on American capitalism
The Thursday Thoughts!
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." —Ralph Waldo Emerson, leading Transcendentalist philosopher
Running off at the Android:
***I have not paid much attention to Actor Jussie Smollett's trial because I sincerely believe that the young Brother has mental health issues that a trial and potential prison sentence will not adequately address.
But one headline from the trial did catch my attention this week is the one in which Smollett testified that CNN anchor Don Lemon had tipped him off that prosecutors didn't believe his story that two Donald Trump supporters had beaten him during a racially motivated attack.
Oddly, this is the second time in one week when a CNN "news" host has made headlines for inserting himself into legal proceedings, with the first being the recently fired Chris Cuomo, the network’s star anchor who provided legal advice to his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), without taking a formal leave of absence.
The simple reality is that with the emergence of the 24/7 news cycle over the past three decades, CNN, just like Fox News and MSNBC, has become mostly entertainment with some journalism interwoven in its daily programming. Whether it is Cuomo and Lemon on the left, or Sean Hannity serving as a de facto adviser to former President Trump on the right, many (not all) show hosts, as entertainers, are at times filled with a hubris that leads them to becoming the news—instead of reporting and providing analysis.
See the last entry below for a reminder of "the way it (once) was" in the mainstream media…
***Facebook Memory reminded me this morning of a post from 2015 following a Republican presidential debate that season:
When I read the old post and remembered how profanely forceful Sen. Graham once was against Candidate Trump, I immediately thought to myself, "what made Graham morph from Trump foe to Trump friend?"
In fact, the following excerpt from an article in The Hill this morning makes me scratch my head even more, as Graham is now championing Trump's fight against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the ongoing Republican civil war: "Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) offered a forceful warning to Republican colleagues during a private lunch on Wednesday, saying former President Trump will come down hard on any GOP senators who vote for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) deal to set up a special pathway to raise the debt limit. One GOP senator said Graham specifically warned colleagues 'the president is going to be engaged on this issue.' (Graham) told colleagues that McConnell had 'led them on a charge up a hill and they were getting shot in the back..."
Again, I remember how Graham detested Trump six years ago, and now the senator not only still refers to the former president as "the President," but clearly has decided which side of the Republican line in the sand that he will stand upon moving into 2022.
***Americans, by and large, adhere to capitalistic theories even when it is clear that the same has always cast an unusually high burden upon the middle and poorer classes—while benefiting the wealthy.
This fealty to capitalism is so ingrained that most Americans don't give much thought at all about "why" prescription drug, medical insurance, and gas prices are high and have been growing higher each and every year over the past three decades. For example, when I began taking insulin following a near death diabetic attack three years ago that kept me from working for nearly three months, as I recovered, even with insurance, those vials of medicine cost nearly $700 a pop—which is patently absurd.
What's worse is that such prices are God awful no matter if there's a Republican or a Democrat in the White House—a reality that continues to make me wonder when we, the people, will do more to demand that these companies that are raking in exorbitant profits for food, medicine, and gasoline are better regulated?
***When former President Donald Trump entered office in 2017, one of his oft repeated slogans was his desire to "Drain the Swamp," one that referred to removing special interests that, as noted in the preceding prong, are responsible for much of the angst that the American people experiences while struggling to make ends meet. Trump's promises were but another form of populism, one that purported to achieve some of the same goals from the right that two-time Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders often proposed from the left.
The problem with Trump's promises were the same that would have befallen a Democratic President Sanders as well, which is that the so-called "Swamp" is hard to "drain" when you merely replace one group of greedy corporate alligators and adders with another that is strictly out to line the pockets of their owners, stockholders, and politicians that do their bidding.
In a NY Times essay today, Dr. Corey Robin, political science professor at Brooklyn College, broke down how an idealistic Trump was both used (and defeated) by the very GOP hierarchy he swore to drain: "For all his talk of opposition to the Republican pooh-bahs, Mr. Trump delivered what they wanted most — tax cuts, deregulation and judges — and suffered defeat when he tried to break out of their vise. Republicans repeatedly denied him funds to support his immigration plans. They overrode his veto of their military spending bill, something Congress had not been able to do in the Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations. Mr. Trump’s own administration defied his Russia policy. This combination of weakness and deference to the G.O.P. helped keep the Republicans — and the Reagan regime — together."
I posted this excerpt from Dr. Robin's essay because to let Trump, his adviser Sean Hannity, and other supporters tell it, Trump's goals were thwarted by Democrats when, in reality, it was his own party that posed his greatest opposition.
Such is why the Republican civil war now rages between the Reagan wing (McConnell) and the Trump wing (Graham)—a war that could benefit Democrats nationwide in 2022.
***While I was not surprised, I was still very frustrated to read this morning that Paul and Tenisha Austin, a Black California couple, was forced to file a lawsuit this week after a home appraiser valued their home about $500,000 less than its true worth.
Earlier this year, the Austins had a white friend of theirs sit in the kitchen of their home during one appraisal, and then sat in their own home about 10 months later during a second appraisal, only to find that their house was valued at $1,482,500 when their friend was showing the home—and $995,000 when they showed their own home.
Here's wishing a very successful litigation for the Austins moving forward!
Old School Media
In the first prong, I lamented the fact that cable news has become more about entertaining than accurate informing in recent years; when time permits, check out the following CBS News interview featuring legendary anchor Walter Cronkite and then President John F. Kennedy.
Conducted on September 2, 1963—barely a week after the famed March on Washington and two months before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas—this calm discussion about civil rights, the economy, the Soviet Union, and the early stages of the Vietnam War is a master class in collegial respect and professionalism.
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As Democrats embrace the talk of ‘hopeless elections future’, Republicans, in the middle of a real and ongoing civil war within the GOP, are fiddling Nero-tically in the midst of the burning dumpster that is the party of Trump. Why do Democrats lose when nothing but winning was the prize? Apparently, because they choose 2 hand touch when the game is clearly NFL level tackle football… Damn! Won’t even put on the effin pads.
Don’t get me started on American health care. Glad you were able to get through it.