It's interesting to see just how indignant some media folks are over Matt Lauer's passive, enabling "candidate forum" the other night. It's as if they expected some other -- any other -- outcome from having a morning-show hack from a key corporate media monopoly "interview" a reality-teevee actor from one of that same network's shows from the past decade. Did anyone expect anything other than inept softballs?
I mean, yes, Lauer is certainly welcome to fuck off and die; that shitshow the other night was just a ramped-up continuation of what Lauer has done his entire career, which is to hurt America. And now that hurt is on the verge of becoming quite literal. Not that it hurts Lauer, of course; he makes more money in a year than you and I will see in our entire lives. The only thing that would hurt him is if he lost his elite status.
People who fancy themselves as media-watchers, implying that they are savvy to what the corporate media minions are really all about, miss the point by a mile when they start trying to suss out the political preferences of this or that reporter. I have no idea whether Lauer considers himself liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. Probably votes Democrat more often than not, maybe even fancies himself a good and generous citizen by contributing to the Clinton Foundation, if properly invited to the appropriate appletini soiree in the Hamptons. Whatever. Such considerations are irrelevant.
Contrary to what people -- especially conservatives -- have been conditioned to believe, the majority of the talking heads they see on their teevees are neither blue nor red but green. They will say and do and act in whatever manner their insect corporate overlords expect them to. It doesn't need to be written into the contract, but it might as well be. They will not deviate from the corporate narrative, and they don't even have to be told. They intrinsically understand their roles, even if most of us don't understand their roles accurately.
A thousand internet bucks says that Lauer probably doesn't even know what he did wrong, and in fact thinks -- knows -- that he did nothing wrong. I would assume that Lauer has interviewed Drumpf many times over the past dozen years or so to promote Drumpf's stoopid reality show. That's what shows like Lauer's are for, internal promotion and endless streams of ads for cars and pharma and such like. It wouldn't be surprising at all to find that Lauer and Drumpf are friends, or at least that the former considers his relationship with the latter as "friendly," even though the latter clearly views practically all of his interpersonal relationships as purely transactional.
But as pointed out in the previous post, understanding how other people perceive themselves gives you the power to persuade and motivate them, but also the power to more or less predict what they say and how they think. You can bet your next ten paychecks that even a shameless tool like Lauer thinks of himself as a Journalist. Hell, he probably even thinks he was tough on his friend, and pressed him on some questions.
He's just an implement, one of many used to maintain a much larger machine. The people that run the country are the same people that own its primary modes of communication, certainly at the "elite" or "establishment" level. It is in their interest that HFC win, not because Drumpf is an incompetent idiot (even though he is, of course), but because they profit the most on the maintenance of stability and predictability, and a volatile caricature like Drumpf might adversely affect the profits of speculation, which of course is the source of their filthy pelf.
But it is also in their interest that HFC's victory is close, both because it keeps ad rates and sales high leading into the final election, but also because a crushing victory would give her a clear mandate. She might get ideas of her own. Unlikely but possible. Can't have that. That almost happened with that nice black fella, Hopey Changey or Chocolate Thunder or whatever you call him. Fortunately a concerted effort from bought-and-paid-for legislators and a complaisant corporate media saved the day for more and better profits.
I mean, yes, Lauer is certainly welcome to fuck off and die; that shitshow the other night was just a ramped-up continuation of what Lauer has done his entire career, which is to hurt America. And now that hurt is on the verge of becoming quite literal. Not that it hurts Lauer, of course; he makes more money in a year than you and I will see in our entire lives. The only thing that would hurt him is if he lost his elite status.
People who fancy themselves as media-watchers, implying that they are savvy to what the corporate media minions are really all about, miss the point by a mile when they start trying to suss out the political preferences of this or that reporter. I have no idea whether Lauer considers himself liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. Probably votes Democrat more often than not, maybe even fancies himself a good and generous citizen by contributing to the Clinton Foundation, if properly invited to the appropriate appletini soiree in the Hamptons. Whatever. Such considerations are irrelevant.
Contrary to what people -- especially conservatives -- have been conditioned to believe, the majority of the talking heads they see on their teevees are neither blue nor red but green. They will say and do and act in whatever manner their insect corporate overlords expect them to. It doesn't need to be written into the contract, but it might as well be. They will not deviate from the corporate narrative, and they don't even have to be told. They intrinsically understand their roles, even if most of us don't understand their roles accurately.
A thousand internet bucks says that Lauer probably doesn't even know what he did wrong, and in fact thinks -- knows -- that he did nothing wrong. I would assume that Lauer has interviewed Drumpf many times over the past dozen years or so to promote Drumpf's stoopid reality show. That's what shows like Lauer's are for, internal promotion and endless streams of ads for cars and pharma and such like. It wouldn't be surprising at all to find that Lauer and Drumpf are friends, or at least that the former considers his relationship with the latter as "friendly," even though the latter clearly views practically all of his interpersonal relationships as purely transactional.
But as pointed out in the previous post, understanding how other people perceive themselves gives you the power to persuade and motivate them, but also the power to more or less predict what they say and how they think. You can bet your next ten paychecks that even a shameless tool like Lauer thinks of himself as a Journalist. Hell, he probably even thinks he was tough on his friend, and pressed him on some questions.
He's just an implement, one of many used to maintain a much larger machine. The people that run the country are the same people that own its primary modes of communication, certainly at the "elite" or "establishment" level. It is in their interest that HFC win, not because Drumpf is an incompetent idiot (even though he is, of course), but because they profit the most on the maintenance of stability and predictability, and a volatile caricature like Drumpf might adversely affect the profits of speculation, which of course is the source of their filthy pelf.
But it is also in their interest that HFC's victory is close, both because it keeps ad rates and sales high leading into the final election, but also because a crushing victory would give her a clear mandate. She might get ideas of her own. Unlikely but possible. Can't have that. That almost happened with that nice black fella, Hopey Changey or Chocolate Thunder or whatever you call him. Fortunately a concerted effort from bought-and-paid-for legislators and a complaisant corporate media saved the day for more and better profits.
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