But beware what you wish for.
I’ve noticed something lately. I read a lot of editorials and opeds, and letters to the editor in newspapers, and I keep tabs on the television news pundits, the so-called political or otherwise “experts” and their professionally editorialized commentaries on both the local and national newscasts. Other than the newspaper letters to the editor or the local “What Really Grinds My Gears” opinion segments on TV like Peter Griffin’s in ‘Family Guy’, they are all a former this or former that ...politicos, military, finance, industry, or currently employed in some position of seeming “credibility” to enhance their expertise and authority to comment. Their opinions, assumptions, thoughts and comments go out daily to a national audience feeding into the general psyche diet of America.
Add Facebook to this scenario and you have a volatile and potentially harmful mass media cocktail. You see it every day. The Russians see it ...and are using it.
Most editors and broadcast producers of opinion prefer to use these so-called “credible” people, and they pay them well for their opinions. A columnist is either a former journalist, current journalist, a former or current political figure, former or current military, educator, lawyer, investment banker, advisor, analyst ...whatever.
This opinion game is starting to look like a closed system. As you read and listen to this stuff every day, after a while you begin to think that these people are the “official” bearers of truth. The fact is, they have an agenda and are paid not only by the newspaper, magazine or broadcast outlet on which they appear, but by the special interest groups and organizations who sponsor them or whose doctrine they espouse.
In many cases you can compare them to lobbyists. You may not be getting the raw truth on anything.
These folks are well groomed, articulate, lucid and very convincing in their remarks, opinions and comments.
On the other hand, or side of the coin as the case may be, and both on a local and national level, you get the “letters to the editor” people ...average Americans with something to say who comment, editorialize and opine on a wide variety of topics ranging from presidential politics to the advantages and disadvantages of a dog park in their local community. They are generally not as polished or articulate as the proffered columnist or professional pundit, and, yes, many are crackpot, zany and outlandish in their presentation, but many are true to their core as American citizens and they have something to say. Sometimes you have to listen and read between the lines, and between the missing teeth, to understand what they are saying, but they are giving you the raw, honest truth as they see it without the hype and hyperbole of the well groomed, articulate and highly paid pap of the media-preferred presentation.
For example, in my town, a mid-sized community of about 50,000 located in a bucolic northern valley in the intermountain west, the alarmingly irresponsible decisions of our local government catering to developers is virtually destroying the environment and quality of life here with acres of cheap, tract housing plots. The developers make fantastic presentations to the mayor and city council, they are articulate, well groomed, they have and promise money, and they lie through their teeth to get the permits to build. Concerned, outraged, citizens see the writing on the wall. Some fight back at the “public hearings” that are legally required but bogus and ineffective ...some write letters to the editor ...many smart, lucid, intelligent and truthful, but merely an insignificant short-form “letter to the editor”. They go unanswered, un-acted upon and unappreciated, especially, by the developers and the city development personnel. The local newspaper rarely dedicates a long-form citizen opinion column to the issue, sometimes due to the inarticulate nature of the general public, however many are very articulate, sometimes due to the complexity of the issue, sometimes to a hopeless apathy, but they will allow, by requirement, a short-form letter to the editor ...an editor who doesn’t want to make waves.
An editor can also disguise censorship tendencies or blacklisting and hide behind an “editorial decision” in his own personal favor or that of the bias of his media outlet employer ...but all at the expense of his readers, and the active truth of the issue.
Follow the money.
Newspapers have to print letters to the editor as a public service. They are required to by FCC mandate. Many broadcast outlets will have a similar venue (‘Family Guy‘ Peter Griffin ...”What Really Grinds My Gears”). Many of these are outrageous, silly, dumb, entertaining, but many hit the mark and make their point. The difference is that they are the pure, honest, truth. Add them all up and you have a voting base. You have “We the People” ...for better or worse.
Whenever you see a reporter or broadcast journalist interviewing “the locals” at a restaurant or bar, the comments are often looked at as comical or novel, not to be taken as seriously as the paid pundits or “experts”.
This is where we’re at in America today. Our paradigm is set. “We the People” do not have the power. The media has the power, special interest groups have the power, and they don’t necessarily represent the people. They mostly represents their own profits, their own bias.
Letters to the editor are not paid for. Columnists and pundits get paid. Follow the money.
So, to exercise and develop your knowledge and voting effectiveness, your citizenship and power, you can either take the easy road and follow the money, or you can work a little harder and follow the truth.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
