When Politics Don’t Matter

It was a pretty big day of change, with the country getting a new president, and several states getting new US senators.  You can imagine my surprise, then, when the lead story on the 8AM newscast was this—will Socks the Cat stay in Washington in newly-elected Senator Hillary Clinton’s apartment, or go to New York to live with now-former President Bill Clinton?

Hearing this, I did what any sensible person would do.  I turned the radio off.

I hope you will all take a moment to read those first two paragraphs again, especially if the world of politics finds you leaning left.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

In addition to being a college counselor, I’m finishing my 27^th year as a political science instructor, and part of every class includes a lesson on political literacy.  The key ideas aren’t shocking today, but they created more than a small ruckus when I first started:

• All media is biased.  Media sources are run by people, and people have a way of looking at the world that’s unique to them.  Journalism schools try to train that out of people, but many of the voices in media were never trained in journalism, so there we are.
• Media sources have to make money, which influences what they cover, and how much they cover it.  The world went into a tailspin when Princess Diana died, taking nearly four days to recognize what some would argue as a more significant loss—the passing of Mother Teresa.  Princess Di, her playboy suitor, and their limo got page one; Mother Teresa got page 7.
• The key to media sanity is to have two sources of media, and devote ample time to both.  One of these should be in print, because print resources have the luxury of lending more time to their work, which increases perspective and accuracy.  If that weren’t the case, there would have been a fifth plane on 9/11, this one attacking the Mall in Washington—but cable news just got it wrong.
• If you start diving into a news source and you’re thinking, boy, this isn’t very important, go play with your children, walk your dog, or read a book.

That last point is what happened on Inauguration Day 2001.  When the lead story was about Socks the Cat, I knew I could be confident we were going to get a new president without too much tumult.

At this point, half of you are nodding your heads in agreement with this, while the other half are about to throw your computer across the room—and, with all respect, most of the tech tossers will be liberals.  “We can’t afford to keep our eyes off the red hats!  Look what they almost did to the country!”

There’s much to be said for diligence, to be sure, and it is important to thoughtfully articulate your view of the world when it seems society is headed in a disturbing direction.  But too much media dulls your thoughtfulness, and if we’ve learned nothing in the last 7 years, it’s important to remember that discourse must be true and thoughtful.  If you think that’s crazy, that only the wrong and outrageous makes the headlines and the social media circuits, that’s because you’re still giving it credence by reading it.

A literate, informed citizenry is necessary for our country to work, and we’ve come to a point where excess exposure to bad media is making us illiterate.  They’ll stop covering it if you stop buying it—and you’ll be a better spokesperson for your perspective to boot.

Now, where’s that leash?

American Haiku

Rules for poetry?
Five-seven-five?  Says who?
I’ll use more if I–
(Darn editor.)

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