Yup, We’re Dumb Alright

I have had election/news fatigue for about a year now.  I don’t know if it is because there is a TV in my office all day, or if it is something else, but now that either the election is finally over…or maybe it is because I am disgusted with the result… I feel like I might get back into the swing of things.

I am struck recently with how stupid people are.  Me included.  A guy at a gas pump a few days ago mentioned that the good thing about the economy being down is that gas prices will follow it.  Huh?

Speaking of the economy being down, I have begun to ask all the experts at gas pumps what economic indicators they are looking at.  Not that I have a clue.  I wouldn’t know a gdp from an mpg.  I’m a simple guy.  Gas prices went up, so I started car-pooling.  Ended up saving me about $200 a month even before gas prices went crazy a few months ago.  But, I still have cable TV.  I still won’t have Social Security when I “retire.”  We still won’t eat out much, so no change in my economic stability recently.

I venture a bet that most people “know” the economy is down because they are being told all about it on the news.  The same way they knew Obama is a muslim, Palin didn’t know Africa is a continent, McCain is a lunatic, mankind is causing the earth to warm, …

I wonder how ludacrous a story needs to be before the masses won’t believe it if they read it on the Internet or see it on the news.

I used to believe that the problem with the news is that it is liberally biased.  Surely, much of it is.  Then came Fox News, and I thought to myself, “Self, now you have fair and balanced news to watch” and quickly tuned in as often as I could.  So I could be “informed”.  I won’t go into it now, but 9-11 and Katrina taught me that Fox has it’s own bias that all networks have.  I like to call it “car chase bias”.

You see, no matter what is going on in the world, nothing grabs viewers faster and more completely than a police car chase somewhere.  Must be left over from the first, grand, internationally televised car chase: the OJ white ford bronco debacle.  Ever since then, every idiot in a car being chased by police while a traffic reporter is in the air gets national attention on Fox.  Pitiful.

So, with the advent of car chase bias in our news, are we really an informed electorate?  I think not.  How many of you know we lost an OH-58d helicopter in the Mosul area of Iraq on 16 Nov?  Oh, by the way, both pilots were killed in the crash.  I know that doesn’t make any of us a more informed electorate, but would you agree that it deserves more coverage than Obama looking for a magic hypoallergenic dog?  Obviously, there is an agenda in the news business and it isn’t about informing you and me.  It is about getting us to watch the next commercial.  And if getting us to watch the next commercial means car chases instead of dead servicemen, we have a problem.  Either our priorities are messed up, or someone is choosing our priorities for us.  Which one is it?

The argument could be made that our priorities are messed up.  Too much stuff happens in the world every day for any news organization to report it all.  They have to make a determination about what is “newsworthy” and what isn’t, right?  So would they do that?  I have no idea, but I bet I can tell you how they make their determination: by what they know we will watch, hence car chases.  Does this mean we won’t watch stories about helicopter crashes in Iraq?  I don’t know.  I know I will, but I have personal reasons to be concerned about that stuff.  The bigger question is whether a news organization has an obligation to filter news stories according to what is “important” instead of what is “popular.”  Maybe the problem is that news has become entertainment.  No answers here from me, just trying to get folks to think.

Another argument could be made that our priorities are getting made for us.  Sort of a conspiracy, if you like.  It goes like this: certain powerful people further an agenda by brainwashing the people.  Lets say, oh for example, certain people aren’t happy that the war in Iraq is now going well, thanks to a surge that was fought for and authorized by a president that you didn’t like.  Let’s say, again only as an example, that the more people heard about that on the news, the more they thought to themselves, “hey, that president might not be as stupid as I thought…or was it heard…over and over and over on the “news”.  It might be argued that these people might put real news on the back burner and fill our head with stories like how the economy is falling apart…thanks to that stupid president we have.  Are you tracking with me here?

Again, I don’t know much about economics, or how to wage a war and win it.  Like always, I don’t have much in the way of answers.  Just lots of questions.

My guy didn’t win the election.  I’m not sure he ran, but I know the guy who won wasn’t my choice.  I wish I could convince myself he won because an informed electorate made an informed decision, but to be honest, I’d have to ask the same question if the other guy had won.