Demagogue (n): a person who stirs
up public feelings especially of discontent,
ie that politician is just a demagogue who preys
upon people’s fears
and prejudices.
Question: What counts as
news in America more than ratings. Anyone?
Answer: You’re right.
Nothing.
Question: What would you
guess is delivering on high ratings (higher profits) in the history of 24-hour
cable news?
Answer: Candidate
debates, 2016. In this the craziest presidential election year in every talking heads’ memory what to do but slate as many
candidate debates on 24-hour news channels as you can. Oh, and don’t even think
to tinker with the format, especially when ratings (profits), as we’ve found in
the latest business quarter, soar when a demagogue “stirs up public feelings
especially of discontent, ie that politician is just a demagogue who preys upon people’s fears and prejudices.”
As to the public right to know? A mandate to perform a public service by
presenting and analyzing the news in a way that doesn’t merit comparisons to March Madness or
the Super Bowl or the World Series, in which each of us gather round the set or
table or neighborhoods bar (Go Donald! You tell ’em, Bern!) and cheer blindly
for our favorite team (brand, politician), must be a foreign idea.
I’m thinking Canada, for one.
Which might speak to why the domicile-change requests to the Canadian consulate
are spiking these days. Or am I not making the right assumptions here?
Next: Running for Your
Life: If the Greats Were With Us Thursday
