Election 2016: The Suicide Of The Fourth Estate

Screen Shot 2016-09-06 at 8.49.58 AMThis Presidential election is as much a battle between “Media” as between candidates.  Hillary and Trump are figureheads.  The DNC and the GOP establishments are backdrops.  By design, the race has less to do with substantive issues facing Americans than with sensationalism, smears, and sound bites.  The race has been reduced to crass entertainment, bread and circus for the masses.  The price paid for high TV ratings and ad revenue is even higher public distrust than ever in the Fourth Estate.

Most news sources are decidedly left-leaning and increasingly make no bones about it.  With the acceleration of social media platforms and web interconnectivity, metadata, and Machiavellian monitoring, the big brothers in marketing use messaging and pop ups pitched and timed to shape the entertainment experience.  And “news” is a big part of that sales job.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Just like the Leftist governing philosophy they advocate, these media elites control information by selecting facts, omitting others and spinning points of view.  It is the old theme: Control information and education and you control the world.  They do not trust regular Americans to decide issues based on facts.

We are being ignored and played by the media elites.  And we know it.  Increasingly, fewer Americans believe what passes as “news” today.  From Gallup:

Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. . . . Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14% from 32% a year ago. This is easily the lowest confidence among Republicans in 20 years.

Over the years, the rise of talk radio and FOX News has grown into a formidable contingent of right-leaning sources to counter the lop-sided influence of the Left.  Late to the marketing game, the Right Wing Media are nevertheless employing social media and marketing techniques to sell their particular brand and spin to an audience hungry for its product.  The Fox News phrase “We report; You decide” correctly identifies the demand –perhaps this branding is why Fox News usually leads in ratings — yet Fox News itself often trades in this sensationalism,  becoming dramatized, increasingly packaging its “breaking news” as a staged WWF smack down for ratings.

Precious few in the elite media hear (or care) what Americans are screaming at their radios and televisions and furiously tweeting across social media.  Too busy selling market share, products and ideology, the vaulted “Fourth Estate” has forgotten its true purpose: to inform the public and act as a check against government abuse.

Susan Swift

California PolitiChick Susan Swift is a lawyer, author, wife and one conservative mother of seven children. She is currently the Director of Outreach and Engagement at the Right to Life League, American's first pro-life organization. Susan is addicted to the politics of today and always looking out for her little ones' futures. Susan is tough as nails...proud Texan, loves Guns, Freedom, and her right to use Free Speech how she sees fit. And, as a former actress in Hollywood, she always has an opinion about the politics running that town. For more on Susan visit her website at www.RealSusanSwift.com. Follow on social media @RealSusanSwift

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