Roto-Rooter River

One recent poll found that 82 percent of Republicans now trust President Trump more than they trust the media. '

A.G. Sulzberger NYTimes 9/24/19


If nearly half the US population and well over ¾ of Republicans no longer trusts the media and prefers a pathological liar, we are further up Roto-Rooter River than I thought. Any discerning citizen must acknowledge, if they want to be honest, that corporate mass media is collectively a bulwark of the established order. And in that role it needs to try to find out what is really going on. What it reports and how it is framed has an inevitable bias, that's a given. But it's the interpretation that is subjective not the facts themselves. Facts are what are objectively true until proven false then they are no longer facts. Why we choose one media outlet over another should be about interpretation of the facts not an alternate set of facts. Yet when boldface lies slip in and are accepted as truth much damage is done. As we know wars have been fostered by 'the press' based on falsehoods. Yes, you Mr. Hearst (Spanish-America War) and you Mr Sulzberger (Iraq War).


Unfortunately for many Americans truth has been reduced to something relative to its source. This is bad news for all of us. We cannot have a democracy without an agreement on basic reality. Everyone can't have a reality conveniently matching their preferences. Either it is day or night, either something is black or white, either a bit on a computer is on or off, either the planet earth is a sphere or a saucer and so on. But main stream media formerly known as 'the press' in its herd-like pursuit of a breaking story, must base their reporting on the best known information at the time or lose credibility vis a vis its competitors. Having the President call such news Fake News simply because it is unfavorable to a governing entity's agenda or his assertions, destroys something fragile and important. Furthermore it is a step toward totalitarianism.

The trouble now is that other factors are compounding the problem.  Force multiplier Internet driven innovations have moved in crowding out the old media: newspapers, radio and network television. There is always the struggle between entrenched power and privilege vs the (often futile) pursuit of progress toward a more just society. Democracy requires a free press and that's why we have the First Amendment to the Constitution. The question is whether flashy instantaneous communication innovations like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. have made it too easy to profligate the Big Lie or more typically a swarm of dangerous Little Lies. All of this in the service of a state run by opportunistic oligarchs as they hide behind the “freedom of the press”. A free press allows lies to creep in, it is the price we pay for freedom of expression. But lies must be unmasked in the healthy dialogue between the opposing opinion sources. The problem is the that a set of lies can be stictched together creating a totally alternate fabrication  - AKA  conspiracy theories. Historians often uncover deeper more complicated explanations for historical events but they seldom uncover a totally new explanation of a controversial event.  For instance no one has proven unequivocally Oswald did not kill Kennedy.

Matt Zukerberg's Facebook probably now has more influence than newspapers and television combined.  Zukerberg is a strange phenomena. He looks almost alien-like with his close cropped hair and shiny round face. By opportunistically appropriating some other hotshot college techie's social networking innovation he built an empire acquiring multi-billionaire status before even reaching the age 30. By improving, monetizing and then 'viralizing' it, he created a Frankensteinian global monstrosity with over two billion users. Facebook by encouraging first the college kids and then everybody else to broadcast their personal lives like pseudo-celebrities for the whole world to see and linking them to an growing collection of friends, relatives and first second and third level acquaintances (and worse friends of friends of acquaintances), it proved a perfect pseudo antidote to social isolation and anomie. As a social toy Facebook at first seemed innocuous enough. That is until it was discovered by politicos on both the left and right. It soon became the perfect force for producing political 'siloization' of the worse kind. Instead of rude acrimonious dialogues as was the norm in the old dial-up modem Chat Room days, people could comfortably re-enforce their opinions.

While fiery acrimonious encounters still occur egged on by 'trolls' with extremist with four letter word infused vocabularies, most people can comfortably settle in with their brethren in nice 'agree-a-thons' passing around humorous memes, cartoons and articulately constructed diatribes reinforcing their views. But financing the whole thing and making Zukerberg obscenely rich is a layer of advertising that is paying for it all.  Enter devious political operatives and technically adapt extremists including white supremacists, neo-Nazis (along with Russian government operatives). While the political lefties are no angels and can be especially cruel in their lampooning of their political enemies, they cannot match the right wing' when comes to shear creative dishonesty (think 'Swiftboating' of decorated Vietnam vet John Kerry in 2004 vs draft dodging George W. Bush).

With Facebook and its ilk now such major social forces, one can't help but be concerned about big Republican Pac/Trumpian reelection money being pumping into professionally designed Big Lie and Little Lie driven ad campaigns as the quintessentially important 2020 election gets underway. This along with foreign agents with skills at manipulating American public opinion. If the Senate GOP protects El Presidente as expected in what looks to be a proforma Impeachment exercise (that the Demos were forced into by Donald Trump's sheer audacity), then the hustler-in-chief may survive the 2020 election. It so we are surely up Roto-Rooter River.