The Irrelevance Of The Mainstream Media

If anything, the past week’s coverage has shown us just how irrelevant the mainstream media is, and they know it.

Again, I harken back to the words issued by my first editor in 1989. He told me, “It’s the job of the media to report the news, not incite it.” Never were words so true after the events surrounding the tea parties.

The media, in their wisdom, wrote the protests off as “rightwing”, “racist”, hate groups convened for one purpose: display their hate for a black president. The Speaker of the House labeled the protests as a convention funded by rich white businesspersons opposed to paying their share of taxes; ironic given the makeup of Obama’s appointees and near misses, and some currently sitting in elected office.

National anchors mocked those in attendance and used the opportunity to throw in inappropriate sexual innuendo, as if Lewinsky’s weren’t enough to keep our youth vocabulary going strong.

Some of the media elitists were caught making a bad choice in their decision not to cover the tea parties. Remember, the media is supposed to cover what happens, not what they personally hope would go away. Granted, by giving them so much attention, Fox News may have helped incite them, but if we were talking about an anti-Bush protest being organized on the grassroots level, the exalted would have considered this something wonderful.

But again, in their infinite wisdom, the media decides whom is worthy of their valuable coverage and whom is not.

I was contacted by a FoxNews.com reporter Friday morning and asked if I would like to be interviewed on the Brown University/Columbus Day controversy. I talked with the very nice reporter for around 20 minutes and thought I made some good points. The reporter’s editors removed all of the comments made (in favor of some lame statements that didn’t counter the hypocrisy of the Brown students and faculty) in his original draft, and what’s left is a perception that spared Brown of the true criticism they deserved.

The coverage (or lack thereof) of the tea parties is a clear case of media guilt by ommission.

As they’ve been allowed to not just misreport what happened, but in their partisan arrogance, also succeeded in slandering thousands of people who are, in essence, their customers. That arrogance could also be considered stupidity, because did they believe labeling the protesters as racists would make people want to watch their channels? What were they thinkin’?

As this is another of life’s hypotheticals, it’s something we’ll never be able to prove, but if the media had covered the events fairly, there is a chance that people would have been happy their message was delivered and would go on with their lives. By dissing the collective, they’ve angered thousands, disenfranchised themselves from their dwindling audiences, and encouraged the people to do it again, and again, and again.

The elected class is watching, as their kneejerk reaction was to dismiss a voice of the people they didn’t authorize. The media is watching as the people aren’t buying into their templates, and planning to continue on despite being called America’s worst slurs by the elites.

If there was ever a reason to go against their edicts, the media has given the people the reason. The Democrats must be fearing November 2010, and the media has been rendered helpless to shape the debate to their ideology’s liking.

They now know what it’s like to have our elected blow us off. The now know what it’s like to feel irrelevant. The problem for them is, if the media protests, no one will care.