The changed media landscape imperils the U.S.

Joe Rogan (youtube image)

I have never listened to this fellow Joe Rogan. In the "old days" of the gatekeeper media, how would he have found a platform? Ditto with so many other commentators who manage to become public figures nowadays. They slip past whatever guardrails once existed. 

So, the guardrails were bad? To an extent they were probably not ideal. They forced you to curry favor with the gatekeeper honchos, to get a job that reached the masses the old way. 

The new system might suggest empowerment. I think all wise people have mixed feelings about this. Don't we all celebrate free speech? We ought to in theory. However, the people who get toward the top of the heap too often do so with rhetorical bomb-throwing. To what extent are these opinions sincere on their part? And to what extent have these people simply learned to appeal to a certain audience? 

You can surmise what I'm talking about, most likely. If you can't, maybe this blog isn't for you. 

I'm thinking of this "Joe Rogan" today because yet again he gets attention on other media. The implication is that we are supposed to pay attention to what he says. He may be a nice, even intelligent person. But it seems you get nowhere in today's media culture if your views tilt left of center sometimes. 

I love her: Stephanie Miller

Right wing ideas "sell" and they are fun to bandy about and react to - would you believe even among the "progressive" crowd? One little example: the Stephanie Miller podcast. Steph has a pretty long and distinguished background. So it's not like she came out of nowhere. I find her program on YouTube - a podcast? - tremendously entertaining. But she seems to have developed a focus of just hashing over the Trump-related ridiculousness every day. So she would seem to owe her current success to the Trump phenomenon. Yes, most ironically. 

So today a top headline on "Mediaite" references this Rogan fellow. The headline tells us that "Joe Rogan encourages listeners to 'vote Republican' due to 'serious errors' made during pandemic." 

Vote Republican! A "name" commentator comes at us with "vote Republican!" Imagine. Meanwhile the people who are inclined to at least consider voting Democrat seem programmed not to get excited by the media at all. It's not central to their lives. They go about their regular affairs daily, so many other personal and family priorities. 

I have actually checked out "liberal" programming using the search mechanism with "iHeart Radio." You know what? Even though I'm inclined to support those progressive views, I find such programming to be boring, unlistenable really. So there's something about the political right that becomes entrancing. 

The people who once ran the gatekeeper media knew human nature, I'm sure. They were quite aware of what they'd call the "crackpot" element out there, the John Birch Society etc. For as long as they held power, they would not allow the extreme thinking to become normalized, as if it warranted respect. I remember being at the Crow Wing County Fair in Minnesota a long time ago, the '70s I think, and seeing a booth that gave out the wacko literature. I took some samples just to explore. I'm sure you'd find this stuff at our Stevens County Fair too. 

Meanwhile the gatekeeper media of old guided us American citizens with a fundamental conscience, one glaring exception being with the Vietnam war. The media held out respect for far too long, for government spokespeople who were trying to rationalize the war. I make a face as I write this. But on the whole, the gatekeeper media exuded wisdom as it was generous in its reporting about civil rights advances. We were persuaded on the need for Federal involvement.

The Voting Rights Act seemed reasonable to a large majority of us. We accepted Jimmy Carter as a president of conscience and high moral character to take over in the wreckage of Nixon. Carter the Democrat, whose brother Billy was the featured guest on "Hee Haw" one week. The heart of "Hee Haw" was right in line with the conservatives of today, the year 2022. 

We're all in the midst of Trump influence, still, not tamped down at all, no matter what comes out. 

 

No love here: Lindsey Graham

Whatever. . .

So we have a U.S. Senator, the wacky Lindsey Graham, saying as of yesterday there will be "riots in the streets" if the Justice Department moves on Trump. Riots in the streets. 

Republicans eventually got a conscience with Nixon. We ought to pray for that kind of phenomenon again, the acquiring of brains by Republicans. Instead we have this daily avalanche of commentary which is connected directly or indirectly to Trump - his phenomenon. It's not a "teachable moment" yet. 

Riots in the streets? Let me repeat: when we begin to see signs of a truly violent uprising, I do not think it will come from the political right. No - surprise - it will come from the left. The ideological part of it will be obscured by the sheer needs on the ground. People will start to feel desperate. We have allowed the Federal Reserve to become the true government of America. It's the central bank. Too few people see this. The Fed is pretending to take on inflation. It is not. To attack inflation we'll need interest rates that are set above the rate of inflation. Ha! I repeat: Ha! 

So when the economic house of cards comes tumbling down, then what? What will Joe Rogan say then? Or Mark Levin? We won't care any more what such individuals have to say. Their "racket" in the media will be ended. They had better be careful or they might be tracked down by the new communists. You know what they did to Mussolini?

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com