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It seems that nearly every time John McCain speaks we hear another gaffe escape his lips. Whether he is talking about Czechoslovakia, the Anbar Awakening, Viagra, or bottled hot water for dehydrated babies, it seems that McCain can not open his mouth without finding a way to show us that he has absolutely no clue what he is talking about.
It would be easy to look at John McCain’s gaffes and think that he does not have an understanding of much of anything, but that would be a mistake. There is one thing that John McCain understands very well, he understands the American media, and more specifically he understands the role of propaganda in shaping American opinion.
Just think for a moment about the image that John McCain has created for himself. Here is a man who as a member of the Keating 5 was involved in one of the largest financial scandals in the history of American politics, and yet he was able to be portrayed by our media as the man who was going to rid our political system of the corrupting influence of money. Here is a man who has consistently stood alongside the people in power, and yet our media has portrayed him as a maverick. And here is a man who is constantly changing his positions, and yet our media tells us that he is a straight talker.
John McCain knows the way that propaganda works, and he has been very successful at using the corporate media to help him spread his propaganda. John McCain knows what the media wants, he knows that they want a man who can fake a maverick position while simultaneously pushing an agenda that is very much in line with what their corporate advertisers want. McCain not only realizes what the corporate media wants politically however, he also realizes that quite often they want to turn the public’s attention away from politics to get them to focus on distractions.
This week the McCain campaign put out another ad attacking Barack Obama, and how did he choose to attack Obama? By comparing him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton of course. Never mind the fact that Obama has never recorded any god awful pop music CDs, nor has he had his own reality television show. Never mind the fact that he is not a heiress, and he has never stepped out of his vehicle without any pants on. Never mind the fact that Obama became famous not through the entertainment industry, but rather through politics, the very thing you would expect a major Presidential candidate to become famous through. It doesn’t matter that Obama doesn’t have anything in common with Britney Spears or Paris Hilton however, because as John McCain well knows the media loves to talk about Britney and Paris and if he makes the comparison the media will jump on it whether there is any basis to the comparison or not.
Today a Politico article which also happened to get posted on Yahoo’s front page opened with the headline "GOP's Celeb-Obama Message Gains Traction”. What was never answered however was exactly who these attacks were gaining traction with aside from pundits and late night talk show hosts. How many people have you met today who are telling you “Oh my God, did you ever realize that Obama is just like Britney Spears!” My guess is that you haven’t heard anyone say such a thing unless they were working for the McCain campaign, because if an ordinary American were to say something so stupid most people would laugh in their faces. McCain’s stupid attack ad did not gain any traction with the American people, it only gained traction with a corporate media that does not want to focus on the real issues that are facing Americans.
Our corporate media not only allows politicians to get by with these kinds of stupid attacks, but they actually engage in serious discussions about the implications of Obama being tied to Britney Spears. This is exactly the type of “issue” our corporate media wants to focus on, and it is exactly the type of “issue” that is convincing more and more Americans to turn off their televisions.
Despite what the media tells you the American people do not want this election to be focused on which candidate is more like Britney Spears. People who think that Britney Spears is a legitimate issue for our network newscasts to be focused on generally don’t even watch the “news”; they are too busy watching American Idol and the Disney Channel. While the argument is often made that the media is just giving the people what they want, the truth is the American people do not want to hear their bullshit distractions and that is why we have seen declines in the ratings of the cable and network “news” shows in recent years.
Despite the fact that the corporate media loses more credibility every single day however, the fact is they still do have an enormous amount of influence. John McCain knows that if he can make Britney Spears an issue in this campaign our media will focus on that issue like a bunch of pre-teen girls while they ignore the economy, while they ignore the massacre in Iraq, while they ignore the tens of millions with no health care, while they ignore the energy crisis, while they ignore the crimes of the Bush administration, and while they ignore the erosion of our civil liberties.
John McCain knows that on all of the issues that truly matter to the American people he will lose the debate, and so he wants to bring out Britney Spears as a distraction from the real issues. Unfortunately we have a corporate media that is more than willing to let him distract us from the real issues that are facing America . We need to send a message to the corporate media that if they are going to allow McCain to distract them with this crap, then we are going to turn off the television. We don’t need to hear from the mindless pundits who are so out of touch that they believe we care more about Paris Hilton than we do about our health care, we can go on the internet and get real news about the issues that truly matter to all Americans.
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