DRVING THE AGENDA!

When you drive the automobile of leadership effectively you spend little time looking in the rear view mirror! However when you slow down to see who’s hounding you, chasing you or questioning how you are driving you take your eyes off the road in favor of that mirror. The present U.S. administration which in its first 4 year term had its foot firmly planted on the accelerator didn’t use to have a mirror on their ship of state.

Since the second term however it seems they are driving in reverse mistaking that mirror for the windshield. In the field of communications perception is reality. Inasmuch as the media in the first Bush term gave the benefit of any doubt to the administration, the second term has seen an about-face!

The media has become the lead torch carrier of a runaway mob that is seeking to put an end to Dr. Frankenstein’s reign in the White House. The media group think, which is always pervasive, has become bent on the destruction of the Bush monster. He isn’t helping himself much this term either but the media is endangering the presidency through its coverage. They are leading with their own political bias and affiliation to left wing ideologues. The President is leading also but in a head-on opposite direction. They keep banging heads and currently the media has the upper hand.

Balance and objectivity is seldom seen nor heard any more in journalistic circles. The easiest way to identify bias is in the very language used to report stories and the amount of good press accounts versus negative stories being filed.

Controlling the agenda and cultural topicality is to control the story. You can influence a majority of people’s opinions based simply on how you tell them a tale once you know their proclivities and personal political persuasion. That isn’t to say that there is not a core of belief swirling at the center of any controversy regardless of the news reports. In any given news cycle however, even that hardened center will appear to sway given the changing political winds and depending upon how facts are presented to the public. The term fact is open to interpretation because depending on who you listen to the truth is filtered through the story teller’s own biased filter.

In the 1950’s there was only one Edward R. Murrow who not only offered news sensibilities but was iconic. He was revered so much that his status enabled him to slide his opinion into the mix and influence a generation. Walter Cronkite did the same but was much more adept at keeping his own politics under cover even though it did at times color his reporting.

Today there is cable news and nothing but Murrow’s and Cronkite’s waving their opinions around under the guise of newsertainment (news presented in an entertaining style). There is nothing wrong with that template per se but the public has been conditioned now to believe that one’s opinion is acceptable as credible news. Utter it and it is true!

The sniping among pundants and political operatives with certain leanings has created a distinct line in the political sand for all American’s. On issue after issue the camps are divided and squared off, dressed as if for battle rather than political debate. Disagreement today is a clarion call for character assassination of ones opponent rather than just having your opinion stand or fall on its own.

The media which can either reflect the culture or lead it has been doing the latter for more than 15 years. It is no coincidence that this ill-conceived political tenor coincides with the rise of conservative talk shows and media outlets. The era of Murrow, Cronkite, and unquestioned news authority, which use to belong exclusively in liberal hands has not only been equaled but eclipsed by conservatives in the news arena.

Traditional media is fighting back. Unfortunately in doing so it has deevolutionized the discourse and all media is being brought down into a gutter fight with political tolerance and compromise as the casualty. It is setting the cultural landscape and then reporting upon it as if the people created it instead of the media itself. Perhaps we should glance in our own rear view mirror as a reminder of how civility is noble and that it can enlighten the cultural political debate and lift us all.