Making Fun of Media Excesses Is Only the Beginning

There’s an interesting article by Joe Concha in the December 27, 2024, New York Post regarding his picks for the media’s top four gaslighting attempts of the year, all of which were well-covered here. There was Joe Biden’s rambling slow-motion train wreck of an appearance at the G-7 conference in Italy in June, during which he wandered off, shook hands with air, and otherwise belied the ”sharp as a tack“ myth forever demolished in his disastrous debate appearance a few weeks later against Donald Trump. 

We also had the insistence that Kamala Harris’ policy flip-flops were irrelevant, her powderpuff and often prepaid friendly interviews qualified as hard-hitting journalism, Trump‘s Madison Square Garden rally was Naziism reborn, and Harris’ overwhelming defeat was due to sexism and racism, not her utter ineptitude.

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It’s easy to throw brickbats at the media’s obvious biases. It deserves each and every one. We know they are activists pretending to be objective journalists. They know we know this, despite our being, in their, uh, “esteemed” opinion, a collective of mouth-breathing slope-headed flyover country inbreds. Frankly, as long as they can still eke out some semblance of a paycheck from bouncing word salads inside their echo chambers, they don’t care.

The media also understands that despite their diminishing audience, they still, to a degree, drive the national narrative. When they fail to do so, it is spectacular; witness the crash and burn suffered by their prattling insistence the economy was awesome beyond words routinely trotted out during the presidential campaign while the middle class was fiercely struggling to afford food and fuel. Nevertheless, although not in direct reach — which they know is limited — the media disseminates its message through societal filtration, counting on individuals repeating what they have casually heard through second, third, or more generations, eventually tracing back to what someone has heard or seen the media endlessly repeat.

We have X now, thanks to Elon Musk taking the red pill. We are seeing at least a temporary shift toward neutrality on Facebook, with Mark Zuckerberg sheepishly admitting he earlier went along with the Biden administration’s push toward censorship. Quoting my friend Ladd Ehlinger Jr., “No, the solution to bad speech is not censorship, but more speech.”

Good inroads. But, even in today’s social media-drenched society, it’s not enough. We need human contact to counteract media’s societal filtration.

Human contact often means reaching out of our comfort zone in order to meet people where they are. An example from my workplace. One of my coworkers is terrific at her job. She also has her picture in the dictionary next to the word taciturn. Rather refreshing, actually, although having an in-depth discussion with her about political or societal matters is obviously out of the question.

My coworker is a huge K-pop fan. Me, not so much. When ads started appearing on my Facebook feed for a K-pop ensemble named BABYMONSTER playing the Forum in Inglewood, California, next year, it sparked my curiosity as I had, unsurprisingly, never heard of them. So, I asked my coworker if they were popular enough to fill a stateside arena. Her conversation level immediately turned from taciturn to torrent as she breathlessly told me everything there is to know about the band, their popularity (they are more popular in Korea and Japan than here), and anything else I could possibly want to know. No, I did not immediately follow this with a talk extolling Trump’s virtues. But there was at least a foundation laid for potential future conversations.

So, while it is great and grand fun lampooning and harpooning the media’s follies, it is vital to remember we still need to actively combat their influence by making contact and opening communication with others in their areas of interest. Concluding with a Biblical illustration, I am quite confident that the apostle Paul, when earning his living as an itinerant tent maker, thought many times while chatting with potential customers that he would much rather be preaching to them. But, one step at a time. Press on.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, this is a BABYMONSTER.

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