The Root of All Evil: Why I Bash the Media
I enjoyed watching the President spar with the White House correspondents last week. When he shut down Major Garrett, the man I later referred to as "that Fox fool" because I didn't realize he is now working for CBS, I actually threw up my fist in solidarity with Obama. Garrett was clearly showboating and posturing as he wondered why the President was content to leave behind hostages in Iran. I guess some of these correspondents believe they are speaking for the people when they ask the politicians questions, but they are never speaking for me, even when they are asking a question that I might ask. They should speak as themselves and remember that these press conferences are not about them and their performances.
There was one moment during the news conference, however, when I was disappointed in the President's performance. I think it came immediately after he dressed down Garrett. The black female correspondent named April asked him several subject-changing questions (she apparently didn't realize that Obama didn't want to change the subject from Iran), ending with some questions about comedian Bill Cosby. After saying that there was no mechanism for taking back a Presidential Medal of Freedom and pointing out that he didn't usually comment on cases that had not been tried, he looked serious and said, "If someone gives a man or woman a drug and has sex with that person, it's rape." So much for not commenting!
I wish Obama had said, "Mr. Cosby has not been tried in the courts; he's being tried in the media." I wish he had said, "You know, April, I have been accused by some in the media of being born in Kenya." I wish he had reminded April how the Iran deal had been misrepresented in the media and how the ACA had been demonized by some in the media. The President should not have participated in the high-tech lynching of Dr. William Cosby, a man who has financially supported education, especially historical black colleges, and has entertained millions for decades. There are even some people who give Dr. Cosby credit for Obama's being President, which certainly should have made the President hesitate before weighing in on a subject that was so far off the topic of the deal with Iran.
The demonization of Bill Cosby is just one recent event that reminds me why I believe the media is the root of all evil in America. I've also been disturbed by the fact that both Jeb Bush and Donald Trump can run for President. I believe that if the media had done its job, neither man would dare to show his face on television, much less announce a run for President. Jeb may not use his last name, but everyone knows he's a Bush, and if the press did its job, everyone would also know that his brother, whose disastrous reign ended only six and a half years ago, was the worst President in the lifetimes of most Americans still living today (the folks who were alive during Hoover's reign might pick him as the worst). Jeb even had the nerve at one point to say that his brother kept us safe. And the press did not attack him the way they should have. Who was the President on 9/11/2001? Who was the President in 2005 when there were dead bodies lying in the streets in New Orleans? Who flew over that city and looked down from the airplane? And who lied, "Heck of a job, Brownie"?
Of course, compared to Trump, Bush is a reasonable choice for President. He's smarter than his brother, and he served two terms as governor of Florida. He even has a Latina wife and mixed-race children, which is a plus for me. But Donald Trump is a maniac, and if the press had demonized him for his racist birther nonsense in 2011 and 12, we wouldn't have to listen to him attacking Mexican immigrants and Vietnam POW's today. It's interesting to see how Vietnam dodger Trump's attack on tortured Vietnam POW John McCain has been handled by the press because his behavior mirrors the Republicans' treatment of war hero John Kerry in 2004. Some of us remember how the Republicans, whose ticket featured two Vietnam-dodgers, taunted Kerry by suggesting that he faked his injuries to earn purple hearts. There was even a name for what happened to Kerry--swift-boating.
A slightly less disturbing (and significant) media event has been the deification of Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn won the gold medal (as Bruce) in 1976, but in the last few years, she has played the addled, henpecked father in the various Kardashian reality shows. Although she claims that she felt like a female since she was a child, Caitlyn married three times and fathered six children. She also was recently involved in a car accident where a woman around her age was killed. Despite these issues, Caitlyn is being hailed as brave and heroic. Only a few people have wondered why she's doing still another reality show, and a few more criticized the ESPYS for giving her the Arthur Ashe Award for courage. But I wonder what would have happened if Tiger Woods had claimed he was a woman. I think he would have been treated differently, not because of his race or the sport he plays, but because he is not a media whore like Caitlyn Jenner (and Donald Trump) and therefore is not beloved by the media. He doesn't flatter them and give them access, so the media would probably have wondered why he married that poor woman and produced those poor children who would have to deal publicly with having a father who is now a woman. And they certainly would have said more about the woman who was killed in that car accident.
It's interesting to speculate about why certain people are demonized and others are not. The demonization of Cosby is interesting because of the timing. Why now? These rumors about what he did with and to women were out there for years. Why didn't the press demonize him when he was telling young black men to pull up their pants, when he was criticizing black people? What was Cosby about to do when he started being demonized after a black comedian gave the media cover? I remember that Clinton was going to have a discussion of race just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. And why has Cosby gone from being an adulterous old school jerk who engaged in behavior that he and the women (who apparently didn't mind hanging out with a married celebrity) may not have realized was wrong to being a rapist? Why are we no longer talking about those movies from the eighties that joked about men having sex with women who were drunk or even unconscious? We shouldn't condone men taking advantage of women, but we also shouldn't condone high-tech lynchings of powerful black men (like Clarence Thomas and Bill Cosby), using sex. I'll see all of the rape cases that you demonizing politically correct folks throw at me and raise you the Scottsboro boys, Emmett Till, and the Central Park Five.
I hope that the media, led by female journalists like April, will change the women-as-prey and men-as-predator narrative. The President included men as potential rape victims if they were secretly drugged, but I doubt that anyone would feel sympathy for a man who claimed that a woman (or maybe even a man) had sex with him while he was drunk or drugged. We have been socialized to see women as victims and men as villains in sexual encounters when one partner has not clearly consented. We believe that women can seduce, but only men rape. And we've also been socialized through centuries of portraying blacks as highly sexualized to see black men as rapists. The media has done that to us.
I enjoy bashing the media because the media folks are extremely powerful. More than anyone else they shape the way we view the world, and more than anyone else they are responsible for what our world has become, both the good and the evil.
There was one moment during the news conference, however, when I was disappointed in the President's performance. I think it came immediately after he dressed down Garrett. The black female correspondent named April asked him several subject-changing questions (she apparently didn't realize that Obama didn't want to change the subject from Iran), ending with some questions about comedian Bill Cosby. After saying that there was no mechanism for taking back a Presidential Medal of Freedom and pointing out that he didn't usually comment on cases that had not been tried, he looked serious and said, "If someone gives a man or woman a drug and has sex with that person, it's rape." So much for not commenting!
I wish Obama had said, "Mr. Cosby has not been tried in the courts; he's being tried in the media." I wish he had said, "You know, April, I have been accused by some in the media of being born in Kenya." I wish he had reminded April how the Iran deal had been misrepresented in the media and how the ACA had been demonized by some in the media. The President should not have participated in the high-tech lynching of Dr. William Cosby, a man who has financially supported education, especially historical black colleges, and has entertained millions for decades. There are even some people who give Dr. Cosby credit for Obama's being President, which certainly should have made the President hesitate before weighing in on a subject that was so far off the topic of the deal with Iran.
The demonization of Bill Cosby is just one recent event that reminds me why I believe the media is the root of all evil in America. I've also been disturbed by the fact that both Jeb Bush and Donald Trump can run for President. I believe that if the media had done its job, neither man would dare to show his face on television, much less announce a run for President. Jeb may not use his last name, but everyone knows he's a Bush, and if the press did its job, everyone would also know that his brother, whose disastrous reign ended only six and a half years ago, was the worst President in the lifetimes of most Americans still living today (the folks who were alive during Hoover's reign might pick him as the worst). Jeb even had the nerve at one point to say that his brother kept us safe. And the press did not attack him the way they should have. Who was the President on 9/11/2001? Who was the President in 2005 when there were dead bodies lying in the streets in New Orleans? Who flew over that city and looked down from the airplane? And who lied, "Heck of a job, Brownie"?
Of course, compared to Trump, Bush is a reasonable choice for President. He's smarter than his brother, and he served two terms as governor of Florida. He even has a Latina wife and mixed-race children, which is a plus for me. But Donald Trump is a maniac, and if the press had demonized him for his racist birther nonsense in 2011 and 12, we wouldn't have to listen to him attacking Mexican immigrants and Vietnam POW's today. It's interesting to see how Vietnam dodger Trump's attack on tortured Vietnam POW John McCain has been handled by the press because his behavior mirrors the Republicans' treatment of war hero John Kerry in 2004. Some of us remember how the Republicans, whose ticket featured two Vietnam-dodgers, taunted Kerry by suggesting that he faked his injuries to earn purple hearts. There was even a name for what happened to Kerry--swift-boating.
A slightly less disturbing (and significant) media event has been the deification of Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn won the gold medal (as Bruce) in 1976, but in the last few years, she has played the addled, henpecked father in the various Kardashian reality shows. Although she claims that she felt like a female since she was a child, Caitlyn married three times and fathered six children. She also was recently involved in a car accident where a woman around her age was killed. Despite these issues, Caitlyn is being hailed as brave and heroic. Only a few people have wondered why she's doing still another reality show, and a few more criticized the ESPYS for giving her the Arthur Ashe Award for courage. But I wonder what would have happened if Tiger Woods had claimed he was a woman. I think he would have been treated differently, not because of his race or the sport he plays, but because he is not a media whore like Caitlyn Jenner (and Donald Trump) and therefore is not beloved by the media. He doesn't flatter them and give them access, so the media would probably have wondered why he married that poor woman and produced those poor children who would have to deal publicly with having a father who is now a woman. And they certainly would have said more about the woman who was killed in that car accident.
It's interesting to speculate about why certain people are demonized and others are not. The demonization of Cosby is interesting because of the timing. Why now? These rumors about what he did with and to women were out there for years. Why didn't the press demonize him when he was telling young black men to pull up their pants, when he was criticizing black people? What was Cosby about to do when he started being demonized after a black comedian gave the media cover? I remember that Clinton was going to have a discussion of race just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. And why has Cosby gone from being an adulterous old school jerk who engaged in behavior that he and the women (who apparently didn't mind hanging out with a married celebrity) may not have realized was wrong to being a rapist? Why are we no longer talking about those movies from the eighties that joked about men having sex with women who were drunk or even unconscious? We shouldn't condone men taking advantage of women, but we also shouldn't condone high-tech lynchings of powerful black men (like Clarence Thomas and Bill Cosby), using sex. I'll see all of the rape cases that you demonizing politically correct folks throw at me and raise you the Scottsboro boys, Emmett Till, and the Central Park Five.
I hope that the media, led by female journalists like April, will change the women-as-prey and men-as-predator narrative. The President included men as potential rape victims if they were secretly drugged, but I doubt that anyone would feel sympathy for a man who claimed that a woman (or maybe even a man) had sex with him while he was drunk or drugged. We have been socialized to see women as victims and men as villains in sexual encounters when one partner has not clearly consented. We believe that women can seduce, but only men rape. And we've also been socialized through centuries of portraying blacks as highly sexualized to see black men as rapists. The media has done that to us.
I enjoy bashing the media because the media folks are extremely powerful. More than anyone else they shape the way we view the world, and more than anyone else they are responsible for what our world has become, both the good and the evil.
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