In my previous post I referenced Newt Gingrich’s eleven initiatives that he calls the Republican Congress to pass in order to survive the mid-term elections.
These initiatives would be good for the country and are supported by the American people. Why, then, haven’t the Republicans passed them already?
The reason seems to be that any time the Republicans advance a conservative agenda, the media beat them up. Therefore, they tend to pay the price only for issues of the highest priority such as Supreme Court justices.
The capacity of the media to make Republicans pay dearly for even good decisions is manifested in President Bush’s loss of popularity over the war.
The fact that the battle with the terrorists is taking place in Iraq rather than New York City or Los Angeles should boost the President’s stock. Five years without a sequel to 9/11, or even a minor success by terrorists on our shores, is quite an astounding accomplishment.
However, the media, especially the television media, have the capacity to spin the war as a failure rather than a success, as evidenced in the President’s plummet in the polls.
It must be remembered that even with the advent of Fox News and the decline in the viewership of the mainline networks, the old liberal news sources still have overwhelming preponderance of market share.
This power of the television media is found in its many weapons.
One of its big guns resides in the power of pictures. Neil Postman, in his 1986 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, made the point the pictures have power because the viewer does not tend to process them rationally. While, reading an account encourages rational analysis, viewing pictures does not. Regular pictures of flag-draped coffins erode public support for the war, even if the sacrifice of those soldiers prevents an even greater number of coffins of men, women, and children somewhere in the United States.
Another weapon of the television media is selectivity. In their nightly news, they tend to select a handful of stories that they want to promote. This means that they can sell their slant on the world.
The power of pictures linked with the capacity for selectivity constitutes a lethal propaganda duo. The decision of the media not to show the events of 9/11 but to show the flag-draped coffins creates a significant bias among viewers. Imagine the difference in impact if the media constantly showing the fall of the Twin Towers and not the flag-draped coffins.
This power of this capacity to select is boosted by the trust many Americans have in the media, even those believe they are biased. This can be seen in the tendency of Americans to believe that what the media does not cover is not important—is not part of reality. For example, a major reason that most American evangelicals express little concern over the plight of persecuted Christians is that the media do not cover it, thus giving the impression that either it does not really exist, or it is not a major problem.
I could list a host of other tactics used by the media to promote its propaganda power, ones that can cast the most atrocious issues in a favorable light and commendable issues as negatives.
For example, one would have thought that the spread of AIDS would have resulted in condemnation of homosexuality. Rather, the media were able to use the AIDS epidemic to boost public acceptance of homosexuality.
Consequently, arousing the ire of the media tends to be politically costly. This is evidenced by the struggle Rick Santorum, one of the most conservative Republicans, is having in holding on to his Senate seat.
For this reason, Republicans tend to keep a low profile, especially when it comes to promoting conservative causes. Therefore, even though Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, little of the conservative agenda is advanced.
How is this failure of Republicans to advance conservative causes linked to pathology in the evangelical community. I plan to discuss that issue in the next post.