Saturday, July 14, 2007

You Don't Just Vote on Election Day

In 1776, as the American Revolution was fermenting, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called "Common Sense," pointing out what he felt was obvious about the injustice of British rule, the biggest issue of the day.

Two hundred and thirty-one years later we seem to be once again in need of someone to point out the obvious. The U.S. health care system is a joke that would be funny if it wasn't costing lives. Our political system is sullied beyond recognition by corporate dollars. We are lucky to get a 60% voter turnout for a presidential election.

Sadly, Thomas Paine is dead and the mainstream media (a clichéd term, I know) seems unwilling to take his place; yes, the same free press that Mr. Paine saw 25,000 Americans die for now airs more coverage on Paris Hilton's DUI than it does on the ongoing massacre in Darfur. (To put the Revolutionary War casualties in perspective, they represented about 1% of the population at the time, or, adjusted for "inflation," 3,000,000 dead Americans in 2007).

So here we are, all dressed up Constitutionally but with no place to go. We all like to blame the press, the government, the amazingly ambiguous "corporations." How many people hear about federal attorneys being fired because they didn't like the administration's politics on CNN, and change the channel? Enough to make a difference. I once had the opportunity for a sit-down with a guy (who will here remain nameless) that works in a media think tank in Washington. During out conversation, he described CNN headquarters in Atlanta to me, and one thing in particular stuck out in my mind: on the wall in their "war room" is a big screen with an ever-moving graph that shows, at any given moment, how many people are tuned in to their channel. As a business, they depend on advertising dollars, which depend on their number of viewers, so they are incentivized in the extreme to maximize viewing. When the graph starts to go down, they change the story. On the whole, when they report on things like Darfur, like Gaza or the West Bank or climate change, their graph goes down. And the story changes.

"Well," someone might indignantly point out, "they ought to show the NEWS, not just whatever the most people want to see." This is the basic mindset of the "it's the fault of the 'corporations'" set. Let's own up, shall we? There could scarcely be a more democratic means of determining news coverage than this. Granted, it's thrown somewhat to mob rule, but such, sadly, is the way with democracy. CNN is not a bad company because they're displaying news that people want to see, and I don't find it disconcerting in the least that they adjust their coverage to show what people want to watch. What DOES worry me is that people tend to shy away from relevant stories in this way.

Yes, it's an anecdotal example, but it's intended only as a microcosm to understand the decay of media in America. Advertising to a group of people with their heads in the sand is hard. So the media, showing perfect business sense, stays away from it. So we have Paris Hilton, Jimmy the water-skiing squirrel, and so on. Because that's what people watch.

This is not an isolated example. We don't just vote with ballots anymore; in fact, that's the least of it. We vote with our eyes for what material generates high ad revenue. We vote with our wallets on all kinds of things. How many times has somebody thought that it's not a big deal, they can afford a few extra bucks for gas, and bought a Jeep Commander instead of a Prius? How many times has someone thought, maybe I can make back those few dollars I'm losing on gas by shopping at Wal-Mart, despite the fact that I disapprove of their labor practices?

This is, of course, a free country. You may buy a Jeep Commander if you like, and you may shop at Wal-Mart if you like. But do not allow yourself the delusional luxury of believing that your actions exist in a vacuum. When you buy the Commander, you are, using your wallet, voting "no" on whether climate change is an important issue to you. When you shop at Wal-Mart, you are voting "no" on whether workers' rights are important to you. If you don't like the way a company is behaving, DON'T BUY FROM THEM. If you don't like the superficial news coverage that you see on a certain channel, DON'T WATCH IT. You vote every single day, whether you know it or not, for SOMETHING. What you vote for is up to you - if you're informed.

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