As I travel across the country for The Young Turks covering the presidential campaign for TYT Politics, a fact I always suspected has smacked me in the face with confirmation.
Voters are really misinformed, and in some cases, completely uninformed. There’s many reasons for that, but only one can be cited as the driving force for this post-intellectual era.
Our media has been derelict in its duty to inform, deciding instead to engage in an unabashed sprint for ratings, advertising dollars, and viral video.
All you need to do is look at a series of facts you probably don’t know.
Did you know Senator Ted Cruz originally blocked a financial relief bill for the citizens of Flint, Michigan poisoned by lead water but demanded relief for his home state of Texas after deadly floods and a fertilizer plant explosion?
Or that, before his 2012 senate run, this anti-establishment warrior hell bent on burning the “Washington cartel” at the stake went to kiss George W. Bush’s ring in hopes of landing W’s support for his senate run?
Republican women—are you aware Senator Marco Rubio voted no on the Violence Against Women Act, because, according to Politico, “it would divert funds from domestic violence programs to sexual assault programs.”
The bill, which among other initiatives to help victims, made harsher penalties for repeat sexual violence offenders, passed the Senate by a 78-22 vote.
Democrats and Independents: in between the daily, never-ending coverage zeroing in on how Donald Trump trumped the GOP establishment—and now the size of his penis—you may have missed a move former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulled off in a Democratic Debate that, as my Jewish brethren like to say, took some real chutzpah.
When pressed on her lovey-dovey relationship with Wall Street, Clinton countered that Senator Sanders was the one that voted for the disastrous Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000.
That law set the stage for the 2008 crash by deregulating swaps and derivatives, thus opening up the floodgates for Wall Street blackjack with your money. But, as TruthDig’s Robert Scheer wrote, there’s a tiny, inch-bitzy bit of context and information about that vote—and the bill’s creator—that may be useful for voters and viewers to know.
The deregulation provision was lunged into a broader government funding bill, and unlike lawmakers like Ted Cruz, Sanders put people over personal passion, voting for the bill in order to avoid to hurting millions who’d fall victim to a government shutdown.
It gets better. Guess who wrote the bill that Clinton used as a cudgel against Sanders? A guy by the name of Gary Gensler—currently serving as Clinton’s top economic adviser on her presidential campaign.
Chutzpah, indeed.
And in between CNN’s Carol Costello’s disappointed mother face on display when uttering the word socialism to guests like Susan Sarandon—and fire blazing out of Chris Matthews mouth when Bernie Sanders wouldn’t provide him with the proper political-media-establishment answer he draws oxygen from—you may not know that the U.S. is already built on a whole lot of socialism.
Social Security, Medicare, the VA, the military, corporate welfare for Exxon Mobil, General Electric, and all those sloppy, wet-kiss tax cuts Republicans love to give to their donors are all forms of socialism.
Do you think those tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals pay for themselves? No, money is redistributed from middle class and poor people to pay for another plutocrat’s Mercedes…eh hmm…sorry, I meant so he or she can launch into superhero job creators.
And credit where credits due–MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has reported this fact many times on his primetime program. He’s lonely at the front of the table.
Listen, I get it. I used to be one of them. Before joining TYT, I produced at both Fox News and MSNBC (should I write a book?), and was witness to the 24/7 news cycle demands burying producers.
This undoubtedly makes room for lazy television. Instead of researching candidates’ policies, inconsistencies, flip-flops, and overall credibility, it’s much quicker to toss Democratic “strategist” A versus Republican “strategist” B in two boxes to duke it out about Donald Trump for five minutes.
Occasionally, that’s fine. But, sadly, that’s no longer an occasional feature on CNN and MSNBC.
The former turned a sharp 360 degrees in recent years from the pillar of real, valuable news to a cheaper form of infotainment with a side of tasty Anthony Bourdain meals.
The latter sheepishly moved away from progressive journalism, confusing its ratings problem as having an undesired message when the actual problem was flawed messengers.
Are there good journalists at both? Absolutely. Amidst the chorus of naysayers against Chris Hayes over the years, an obvious fact has been missed. Hayes is a damn good journalist, who often chooses nuance and thoughtful over bombast and story of the day programming.
Unfortunately for him, that valuable type of journalism has been barred from cable news for a decade and counting, leaving guys like him to miss the ratings mark in primetime.
Ultimately, if Americans want to learn the facts, they may have to turn off their TV’s and turn on shows like The Young Turks for actual information, delivered while simultaneously acknowledging certain biases.
Hopefully that still matters to the masses. If you’d rather be entertainment, here’s Donald Trump’s event schedule.
Comments
Asher Edelman (the real life Gordon Gekko) has come out for Bernie Sanders. His explanation of how Bernie’s economic plan could stimulate the economy is magically simplistic.
It was during an interview on CNBC and Edelman didn’t hesitate a bit. This guy was the 1% before we knew there was a 1%.
New to tyt. Lovin’ it.
Hiya Jordan! I have been super impressed by you on the campaign trail…. you manage to stay absolutely calm and curious and somehow are able to get even the people most in conflict with your own views to be open and answer your questions which are often quite challenging to their world view…. but you do it so respectfully, they cannot resist trying to answer. Kudos for having a great tour!
I am, however, totally shocked that you are totally shocked at the media propaganda machine and the uninformed voter situation… it’s been going on a very long time. It has been an ongoing agenda to “re-frame public perceptions”–sorry cannot find the link to story on this moneyed plan. ( I also seem to remember–come on older viewers, help me out here– back in the cold war days that Eastern bloc opinion was that the US would ultimately destroy itself from the inside via the stupor of entitled comfort, drugs, and entertainment/superficial oriented culture? –kind of prophetic…) I have found throughout my life, that most people are low information, but the results of that in society now are SO bad because what little information tv/radio/newspaper peeps are consuming now is just so blatantly propagandized, but how would they know when they have never been a critical thinker in the first place?
Fantastic job Jordan! Thanks for all the great interviews and commentaries.
Jordan, You seem to blame this hideous fleecing of the public on “ratings” and “24 hr news cycle.” Can’t you explain that the problem is that these corporations have an AGENDA that they are actively perpetrating on the public? I find these “ratings” and “24 hr news cycle” arguments to be nothing more than sugar-coating a MUCH deeper problem in our society. Our traditional news outlets have all merged into just a handful of companies who do quite well for themselves on the backs of regular Americans. Why would they want to upset the status quo?
My name is Gerard Hoogland, I live in the Netherlands, I am 60 years old. The fact that an American President has a global effect, experiencing the horrible consequences of the decision that President George Walker Bush made (refugee crises at the moment), made me do whatever I can do try and get Mr. Sanders elected.
There’s not much I can do since candidates are not allowed to accept contributions from foreigners, the only thing I can do is post my opinion on TYT. It looked like my comments are very succesful because they were Best Comments many times. Then I found out that on my computer ratings were different than on the computer of a friend of mine-where did the difference come from? I was upset about that, but got over it , now I’m posting again-it’s too important this time.
The idea of Donald J. Trump beiing elected, just makes me sick. I am only posting comments for Bernie Sanders-Republicans will vote Republican so what’s the use.
I like TYT, your presentators and attitude. Plus it has to come from the young voters this time and they are the ones that watch your channel.
With regards,
Gerard Hoogland
avenir avenir— wich is French for FUTURE.
Good article. Right on point.
Jordan is probably the best possible person whom TYT could even find for this job; thanks.
Good article but you mean 180° not 360°
Excellent article! Thank you.
Several years ago I disconnected from the major media and turned to NPR and social media, now I beginning to question some of NPR’s reporting.
I’m in full agreement with you taitgr.
@Kirkz You should have been questioning NPR LONG before this. Please check out where their funding comes from (for example: do they get funding from the Koch Bros.?) and how the Corp for Public Broadcasting has been managed over the past 15 years. Then listen carefully to how they spin. They spin for intellectuals and it shocks me how many of my peers seem not to notice.
NPR gets public funding thru quarterly fund raisers.
It isn’t so much that they spin the news as they don’t report it or are late in getting it to the public.
Only the $$ for “Programming” comes from public fund raisers and memberships. They still need operating $$$. I invite you to do your own research. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a BIG role. You might look up Ken Tomlinson. I would also search Koch PBS NPR. They do spin the news and it’s very subtle.
What do we do about this other than wait for our generation and younger generations to grow in number? We get all our news really from the internet and articles/ videos shared on social media.
I consider being a “keyboard warrior” spreading articles commenting on posts on various social media cites really a form of journalism in this new tecnological landscape. Do you agree?
Can you guys darken the text a little? It’s a bit of a strain to read.
Hey there, i to had a little issue with TYT’s choice of white/grey and the text color but i found changing my monitors color temperature from warm to cool (or your monitors equiv in the panel’s hard menu) made it infinitely easier to read.
Awesome article. I expect more to come.