Media's Marriage to Mediocrity

Tony Hill

Unfortunately the media continues to spread an unremitting stream of political pontifications in an alarming and persistent rate, feeling it necessary to inundate us daily with a constant barrage of politics and government as if serving their gods. Watch the slavish and sycophantic attitude today's reporters demonstrate when questioning Presidents and politicians, acting like petulant children daring to question the almighty. Check the papers, magazines, radio and TV -- the majority of editorials, stories and articles cover and approve of the politicians' efforts to spend more and more of our money on government giveaways. These unearned gifts enlist the votes of willing and conditioned citizens that feel entitled to the government's largesse. If the media isn't touting government and political pronouncements, it's broadcasting the minutest details of crime, murder, shootings, stabbings, earthquakes, floods, fires, blood, crashes, kidnappings, assaults, ad infinitum.

We all recognize the utopian mindset espoused by the majority of media reporters. They feel compelled to disseminate political events in a biased format conforming to their ingrained altruist philosophy and the misguided concept that those of us in the real world are unable to take care of ourselves. They assume that we are stupid, gullible and uninformed, and that we need the government's egalitarian promise to provide us with guidance and the unearned necessities of life. This sort of thinking infecting the media today is bound to have a most malevolent impact on the public by discouraging innovation, invention and entrepreneurial risk-taking, including the attendant lack of incentive and productivity.

And yet today's media continues to promote so-called important political stories to the public without anyone sounding the alarm. Americans have forgotten what is really important. It seems that today the more important something is, the less people will know about it. The less important, the more will know about it. For instance, name six of the Founding Fathers. Now name six current film, TV, music or sports stars. How did you do? Can you hold your head up high and take pride in your self-discovery?

Do we really care when a media reporter covers a political propagandist on the steps of the Capitol who promises to give away more of our tax money to the moochers? Perhaps we, the producers who provide the salaries to our representatives, should take these pompous politicians to task and ask where they get the audacity to capriciously spend the money they steal from us without our permission? Try it and see how far you get. And don't expect any help from media sources.

But maybe the media isn't that bad. As I stated earlier, they certainly supply lots of accurate and detailed information about murders, airplane crashes, crimes, brutalities, wars, violence, smut and blood! And apparently the public seems quite satisfied with it. But don't you sometimes feel apprehensive when stepping out your front door and having to face that dangerous world the local newscast has just painted for you? Paranoia anyone?

Have you ever tried finding good news? Good luck. The achievements of our scientists, inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers, students, writers and producers go basically unnoticed. These are the people that form and shape the greatest nation mankind has ever seen. But don't expect to read about their achievements in the standard media. Too dull. No blood. No action. No suspense. It appears that only a few brave beacons illuminate the darkness of bland, biased and bad news to shine their light on the real achievers in our society. This enlightened task seems to rest on with television documentary channels such as The History Channel, The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel, all broadcasting on Cable TV with its limited audience. These shamefully few outlets do give the invested viewer some insight into the history of what this country and its innovators have accomplished.

But not all the bad news is reported either. For instance, when's the last time you read about our reckless politicians spending more of your tax money than they receive? Why aren't there headlines about the almost one billion dollars a day interest being paid on the six trillion dollar national debt? Kiss that almost 365 billion dollars a year good-bye. Almost one billion dollars a day! Can you believe it? Did you see it fly past you? This is an annual deficit no one in the media talks about.

How about the GAO unable to account for billions of dollars disappearing from several federal agencies due to slipshod accounting? When's the last time the press inspired any crusader to investigate the reckless and criminal squandering of our money by inept federal and state agencies? The only way this gross malpractice is uncovered is when a "whistle blower" within these agencies becomes fed up and leaks these discrepancies to the press. Once that occurs, you can count on that patriotic informer being fired, persecuted, blackballed and hounded for the rest of his life.

Today mediocrity has become quality and that fact is unrecognized by the media. Whether creating a product or offering a service, quality implies a moral base -- you want to do it right. Reflect on today's products and services and the disappointing conclusions you form regarding their quality. Those of us that have been around for a while deplore that decline. Quality is no longer interesting or titillating to the mind-numbed citizen bombarded by political pap and Washington wackiness. Besides, detailing the quality accomplishments of others only makes the listeners, viewers and readers feel inadequate -- we can't do that to them. They won't pay attention. They will become resentful and jealous and direct their antipathy toward the messenger. The accomplishments of others, those shakers and movers, are being overshadowed by the pervasive and superficial glitter the media offers to a willing and indiscriminate public.

Let's fantasize about what a really free and unbiased press might report. Why aren't they covering our country's many positive historical precedents and their impact on today's culture? Why not relate the detailed biographies of historical and contemporary heroes in both the physical and intellectual spheres. Let's highlight the academic achievements of today's students to counter balance all the current attacks on the misguided youthful minority? Let's examine the innovations of pioneers, stressing the importance of individual thought, extolling the free enterprise and capitalist system, emphasizing and highlighting the accomplishment of individuals and their contribution to our welfare and happiness. Why can't we see, hear and read articles demonstrating our success as a country surrounded by a world in constant turmoil and shifting alliances? And finally, why doesn't an enlighten media source recall and highlight our country's founding by the intelligent individuals that freed us from that historically repetitive onslaught of war, misery, turmoil, bloodshed and brutality?

Not to change the subject too much, but what happened to the "good old days?" It seems they are now corrupted and inundated by a sea of political correctness. Let's see: a constant barrage of violence and crime by media outlets; vulgarity and obscenity in the popular music saturating the minds of gullible and indiscriminate youths; tasteless and stupid premises on TV being fed to a receptive public; rampant crime and murder depicted in most movies and television programs without the moral contemplation of long-term effects; the absence of self-reliance and initiative in our youth as a result of uncaring parents and schools; the perpetuation of socialism in most of our universities by professors unwilling and afraid to deviate from the pervasive climate for fear of discrimination and termination; the encouragement of unearned entitlement promoted by indiscriminate media and perpetuated by a ubiquitous government constantly seeking votes by stealing from producers and giving to the slackers; the graduation of inadequately trained students by an educational system that doesn't prepare them to cope with life's realities; the absence of productivity and reason normally fostered by intelligent guidance; the dumbing down of citizens by all the pap in the popular media; the encouragement and approval of a crisis in litigation encouraged by an ever burgeoning army of lawyers looking for work; the proliferation of gangs in the ghettos and the popularization of rap and hip-hop music denigrating women and emphasizing cruelty, rape and murder, actions which many of our youth now consider mainstream and a normal aspect of our western culture. How many articles have you read, seen or heard detailing the above problems and offering solutions to these manifestations of what appears to be a decadent culture? Bread and circuses anyone?