Check the newsfeed on your mobile device today, and you might see headlines like “Why Donald Trump won the debate without showing up” and “How big winners like Donald Trump bounce back from a loss.”
These are just examples of Trump’s strategy to use TV news media as free propaganda, and he’s been doing it since the
moment he announced his bid for presidency back in June. The mainstream media needs to stop being lapdogs to show-pony
politicians like Trump.
Understandably, it becomes harder to remain objective when covering politics, but as the late and somewhat sensational co-founder of the Huffington Post Andrew Brietbart once said, “Feeding the media is like training a dog. You can’t throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns.”
This is exactly the technique Trump is using. Every now and then throughout the entire election year, he’s either been quoted or he’s tweeted, saying some of the most loutish things to have ever been uttered or typed by a presidential candidate. In his latest media stint, Trump was nominated anonymously for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to CNN.
Major media television outlets have repeatedly thrown three names around so far the entire election. While TV is indeed the mass medium for news today, turn yours on, and you’re likely to see one of these candidates being mentioned, whether they’re being glorified or vilified (in Hillary Clinton’s case).
The names heard most today are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump with Bernie Sanders falling in third place. But the election doesn’t revolve around just these three candidates.
With all due respect to Trump’s straightforward attitude and his ability to rationally appeal to somewhat radical conservatives, maybe even ultra-conservatives for that matter, one could argue that he has no genuine interest in the presidency other than his own narcissistic motives.
He wants to kick Mexicans out of the U.S., and he plans to counter ISIS by simply “bombing them.”
Both of these are most certainly newsworthy quotes, but it seems like mainstream media networks like CNN and NBC are actually endorsing Trump through their coverage.
The same can be said for other media networks like MSNBC and ABC, who tend to have a more liberal-leaning audience. It’s painstakingly obvious they want Sanders to win the presidency so much that it’s like they’re attempting to sway your political opinion when you might’ve just wanted to see the sports reel.
When Trump decided to skip a debate back in January because he couldn’t see eye to eye with scheduled moderator and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, that demonstrated his disregard for the level of seriousness and commitment that it takes to lead a nation.
Clinton seems to have some kind of love-hate relationship with mass media. One minute she’s accused of being a whistleblower, and the next, she’s more than likely to be the first woman president.
Accordingly, if people haven’t noticed, it took Sanders much longer to actually get his campaign up and off the ground because of the major publicity TV news broadcasters were giving to other candidates with more familiar names.
Quite a few major TV newscasters had placed Trump and Clinton at the center of the election before the race had even began.
The problem with TV networks being too biased is that subjectivity is not becoming of any news medium, and it should neither be allowed to continue or condoned by broadcast directors.
You can always catch the next GOP debate, but if you don’t get a chance to because of work or other conflicts, then you’ll have to just take Fox’s version of it.
They leave you with no room to actually consider what you personally value in a president, how these people plan to handle foreign relations with terrorism, dropout rates in secondary education, wage gaps and more.
Instead of simply providing timely poll leadership updates and accurate preliminary results, they shove their chauvinisms down your throat with a side of reproach as if you can’t make your own decision, and they have to goad you to vote for their candidate.
While biases may indeed be peeking through in some networks’ coverage of the presidential race, one thing is certain: Trump is currently leading the polls for right-wing voters. This may be expected from the way the race has been covered thus far.
Can his political success be attributed to his knack of swaying mass and social media, or is Trump simply a master campaign strategist as some will claim?
I’m not saying that Trump doesn’t deserve to be the next president, or Clinton, for that matter. I merely want to iterate how essential it is to become an informed voter if you aren’t one already.
Don’t let the subliminal propaganda sway your vote. Keep a keen mind, make the decision for yourself and truly consider how the next election will affect your best interests.