Yesterday, I purchased and began reading the book The Trumps by Gwenda Blair. This marvelous book has excellent history of the beginning of the Trumps in America.
And this morning I continued re-reading Amusing Ourselves to Death, the landmark book by Neil Postman of thirty years ago (2005 edition).
Both books have much to offer us today. What is clear today is how far our electoral process has become a media process. The media are not merely reporting the news, they are participating in shaping the news. We all sort of know this. But it is becoming clearer.
What is to be done about a media which is acting so irresponsibly about the Trump candidacy? I am reading that poll numbers indicate he is pulling near Hillary Clinton in head-to-head match-ups. The press and media are said to have given Trump over a billion dollars' worth of free publicity during this election season.
Trump, the maestro of image, has pulled off a major coup by getting this far. Never mind he is not nominated yet and that a significant section of the Republican Party remains opposed. The movement toward a Third Party is not yet dead, either.
What we do have is a cross between John F. Kennedy and, well, Donald Trump. What did not survive in the morphing was the intelligence, knowledge, and good graces of John F. Kennedy. What did survive was charisma, a telegenic persona, and a jet-set image. If you couple all that glitz with even more glitz you get what we have now -- Trump the Brazen Candidate for President 2016.
This is truly a horror of monumental proportions. People have no idea yet how serious this is. But the books tell the story.
Today's moral: read more books, watch less television
Today's Question: How can the press and media be held accountable for their colossal negligence during the Republican primary season (which is not yet over, by the way)?
And this morning I continued re-reading Amusing Ourselves to Death, the landmark book by Neil Postman of thirty years ago (2005 edition).
Both books have much to offer us today. What is clear today is how far our electoral process has become a media process. The media are not merely reporting the news, they are participating in shaping the news. We all sort of know this. But it is becoming clearer.
What is to be done about a media which is acting so irresponsibly about the Trump candidacy? I am reading that poll numbers indicate he is pulling near Hillary Clinton in head-to-head match-ups. The press and media are said to have given Trump over a billion dollars' worth of free publicity during this election season.
Trump, the maestro of image, has pulled off a major coup by getting this far. Never mind he is not nominated yet and that a significant section of the Republican Party remains opposed. The movement toward a Third Party is not yet dead, either.
What we do have is a cross between John F. Kennedy and, well, Donald Trump. What did not survive in the morphing was the intelligence, knowledge, and good graces of John F. Kennedy. What did survive was charisma, a telegenic persona, and a jet-set image. If you couple all that glitz with even more glitz you get what we have now -- Trump the Brazen Candidate for President 2016.
This is truly a horror of monumental proportions. People have no idea yet how serious this is. But the books tell the story.
Today's moral: read more books, watch less television
Today's Question: How can the press and media be held accountable for their colossal negligence during the Republican primary season (which is not yet over, by the way)?
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