Thankfully, as we are presently seeing across our computer and television screens, the national political media (or MSM) has absolutely no intention of regaining its credibility. Instead, like cornered animals, they are mindlessly lashing out in the comical hope that falsely screaming RACISM and DISARRAY will somehow work this time, even though it backfired each and every time over the last 18 months.
Simply put: We just had the most racially diverse electorate in history … and Donald Trump won.
Ouch.
The fact that the MSM is in very real trouble, and is so on every conceivable level, is no longer in dispute. On top of losing the 2016 presidential election in the most spectacular fashion, a full 70% of Americans no longer trust the media, layoffs abound, streaming is a growing existential threat to cable and broadcast news, and New Media absolutely kicked Old Media’s butt last week Tuesday.
Worse (for them, good for America), the national media has lost that which they most cherish: all of its power to sway opinion, all of its power to determine the outcome of events, all of its power to fabricate a reality that doesn’t exist — a reality that says you are alone on an island of racism if you believe in border security, the Second Amendment, and oppose Precious Obama.
You would think that such a brutal and humiliating loss would result in some soul-searching. Unfortunately, this is an institution without a soul, without a sense of decency or morality; an institution driven only by left-wing ideologues and those willing to give up their soul in order to Belong.
Hey, this is good news. For the last ten years, I have dedicated my professional life to destroying, marginalizing, and discrediting the media, and I personally do not want them to change.
The media can only destroy itself. Please keep on keeping on.
Still, a piece that lays out how the media can return to relevance is a fun thought exercise, so here we go…
1. Give President-Elect Trump a Chance
Seriously, y’all, take a breath.
Listen, I understand, I do,
You put yourselves on the 2016 ballot, and you lost. You’re angry, bitter, humiliated, and desperately in need of a win, any kind of win, a scalp of some sort to get you through the holidays.
The problem is that in doing so, you are only speeding up your own death spiral.
Your screaming of RACISM and DISARRAY is now so shrill only dogs can hear it. While you morons are fabricating crises, New Media is calmly coming up behind you to remind the people that you found Obama ducking the press pool totes adorbs (remember the #TheBearIsLoose? We do.), and that after only 8 days, Trump is nowhere near a deadline for any kind of personnel announcement. Basically, you have gone back to hiding facts in order to push a Narrative and are doing so as though the world hasn’t changed, as though you cannot be instantly exposed through New Media’s journalism and Social Media’s distribution pipeline.
Reality Check: You are not going to get a scalp from a president-elect who soundly defeated you, and did so in front of pretty girls and your own mothers. You are not going to get a win from a president-elect who neither respects nor fears you.
So why not use this time to act like journalists again?
That way when there truly is something amiss in Trumpistan, you won’t be The Little Neo-Stalinists Who Cried Wolf.
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2. Acknowledge the Problem
I live here in a small North Carolina town. We have an ABC liquor store, a Cracker Barrel, a Bojangles, and if you throw a stick you are going to hit a church. Our necks are red, our Gulps are Big, our accents southern, our guns aplenty, and camouflage is the new black. Nevertheless, on the whole, the elite media are much more provincial than my fellow hinterlanders.
What I mean by that is that more of us have spent more time in Blue America than the elite media have in Red America (from a political rally to the hotel room doesn’t count). What I mean by that is through travel and popular culture, we are more worldly and you are nowhere near as exotic to us as we are alien to you.
We actually watch and enjoy “Breaking Bad” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” while you point and laugh and try to destroy “The Passion of the Christ” and “Duck Dynasty.”
The media are objectively the most out-of-touch, insulated, provincial, and ignorant institution not living in Hollywood.
If you want to be better you must…
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3. Pop the Bubble and Let Kansas In
Diversity is not just about race. Diversity is not just about moving even further to the Left and normalizing 9/11 Truthers like Van Jones or the flip-side of the alt-right known as La Raza and Black Lives Matter. Let’s not fool ourselves; the MSM knows that diversity also means a diversity of thought and ideas, but this scares them so much they just can’t bring themselves to do anything about it.
Nevertheless, if the national media wants to earn back its credibility, it has no choice.
And no, I am not talking about some sort of road trip across America where you try to explain and understand the Common Folk like “colonial administrators checking in on the natives” (as Will Rahn so beautifully put it.). What I’m talking about is a massive cultural infusion of people who think differently from you, an infusion so large it makes you uncomfortable and less sure of yourself.
You need to flood your newsrooms, bureaus, and editorial staff with people who…
Oppose abortion, and can explain to you why that position is not misogynist.
Oppose same-sex marriage, and can explain to you why that is not homophobic.
Carry a gun with a concealed carry permit.
Do not see government as the answer to every problem. In many cases, quite the opposite.
Do not believe gay or minority Republicans are damaged in some way.
Love Jesus with all of their heart and do not believe that translates into Bigger Government.
Want the border secured, and can explain why that is not racist.
Believe it is the worst kind of statist fascism to force bakers to make same-sex wedding cakes.
Can explain the difference between culture and race, and in doing so make the case for why American and Western culture is objectively superior to any other.
Desperately want poor, predominantly minority children to receive a school voucher.
Understand that political correctness is fascism.
And on and on…
This will challenge the media, make the media better, force them to better hone their arguments as opposed to shutting people up with name-calling or the cutting off of their microphones. Moreover, maybe it will allow the media to at least recognize the humanity of those they disagree with.
You watch any cable news segment involving an everyday Trump supporter and it’s like watching Margaret Dumont have a conversation with Groucho Marx. Whenever she does this, CNN’s Carol Costello literally tilts her head like a scientist who has just discovered a new animal species. And this is when the oh-so superior interviewer is not venomously trying to discredit the Red State Freak.
Groupthink is so pervasive in the national media, it has become its own form of satire. Worse, in order to enforce the GroupThink, a bullying clique has emerged that jumps online to immediately ridicule and threaten with expulsion anyone coloring outside the lines.
If I were CNN, I would immediately replace Costello, Cuomo, Brooke, Don, Wolf, or Jake with Mike Rowe.
P.S. I am not talking about a token conservative you pat on the head. I am talking about placing into real positions of power those who can openly disagree with, challenge, and even overrule you.
4. Destroy Skynet
When James Cameron’s “The Terminator” predicted the machines would try to take over the world, who knew he was talking about Ezra Klein, Josh Barro, everyone at The Upshot and HuffPo Pollster, Josh Marshall, Philip Bump, Nate Silver, etc.
There is plenty of intelligence at work here, no one is questioning anyone’s IQ. We all know that Data Journalists can make a slide-rule sing, dance, and whistle “Dixie” (even though that’s racist). What they do not have, though, is even a hint of the wisdom that comes from real world experience. And to make up for it, they hide behind “science” and data and metrics and demographics and, most of all, arrogance.
Some of us who barely made it out of high school, but who have clocked some real time in a factory, in a cubicle, in a church, in the unemployment line, and in flyover country, don’t question facts, but we do have the wisdom and experience to add the human condition to the equation.
Without Kirk, Spock is useless.
If the MSM truly wanted to be better, the money being wasted on the data journalism that appears to exist only to reassure The Collective that Trump has no shot of being president, would be better spent on a living breathing news bureau located in Evangelical Country and staffed with us Jesus Freaks.
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5. Nuke the Narrative Plantation
This to me is the National Political Media’s biggest problem.
If you read the front page of one MSM newspaper or web page, you have read them all.
If you watch one cable news hour or morning news show or nightly newscast, you have seen them all.
If you watch one Sunday show, you have watched them all…
As an example: We have “Meet the Press,” “State of the Union, “This Week,””Washington Week,” and “Face the Nation,” and yet every Sunday they all push the exact same Narrative using the exact same top stories, and do so using the exact same angle: 1) Government is good 2) more government is better 3) we must ignore e pluribus unum to bow before the god of multiculturalism 4) Democrats may be imperfect but they are virtuous 5) and anyone who disagrees crazy, stupid, or racist.
How is it possible that all of these different news outlets, news anchors, reporters… How is it possible that they all think and believe and push the same nonsense?
Why does Chuck Todd have to focus on what John Dickerson and Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos focus on? Why is every cable news hour on CNN and MSNBC run through the exact same template as all the other ones? Why is every broadcast news hour pretty much an exact clone of every other one? (Yes, there are exceptions, but those exceptions only prove the rule.)
It is not just madness (and coordinated propagandizing), it is tedious.
Of course if there is a 9/11 or a big election the cloning makes sense, but that is usually not the case.
Turn on your television right now and then flip around and then surf the web… Racist Steve Bannon. Trump transition is disarray. Trump snubs press pool.
And those stories will likely lead all 5 Sunday shows, and all 5 Sunday shows will bring the exact same anti-Trump perspective to those stories.
This is what I call The Narrative Plantation, and if the media is going to survive, this plantation needs to be nuked.
If I were anchoring a cable news hour or hosting a Sunday show or editing the front page of an MSM outlet, I would do everything in my power to free myself from these intellectual chains in order to promise my customers something different — the promise that there is real news and a different point of view out there that is just as worthwhile as what the Narrative Slaves are currently selling, and you will get it here.
Across the entire spectrum of the elite political media, it appears as though there is only one editor-in-chief telling ABCNBCPBSCNNNPRMSNBCTheWashingtonPostTheNewYorkTimesTheLosAngelesTimesTheBostonGlobe what stories to focus on and from what angle.
Moreover, isn’t it human nature to want to rebel, to break out of the pack, to be different? It’s like there is something horribly wrong with these people that they are so desperate to … Be The Same.
Whatever.
Thought exercise over.
Say ungovernable, America.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC