I have lately had more opportunity to watch daytime TV. Given that I am a liberal, I tend to tune into MSNBC. I am beginning to wonder why. Some of the hosts don’t seem to know what they want or where they stand. There are all too often very conflicting messages in the space of one hour.
First, it’s all about the polls, it seems. Polls rule! Even better if the numbers for Obama fall. These guys seem to salivate because they falling numbers mean they and their guests have another opportunity to tell the world how the President should fix his image, the ills of the country and the world! Yum!
And, they seem to know exactly how to fix it all. Just listen in. The President should do this. The President should do that. He should listen to me because I know all!
The only problem is that everyone has different ideas on what should be done. Often the fix is given in a mere fifteen seconds, no details, no pros and cons, no thought to cost involved. Sometimes the ideas vary so wildly that there is no possibility of reconciliation between them, or compromise or melding them into a coherent plan. Who does the President listen to? Should he make twenty pundits and hosts angry to make another dozen happy or just kind of meh?
Does he jump to it today without feasibility studies, cost estimates, personnel, infrastructure, etc? Should the President first make sure it’s legal? Oh, yes, there is a whole can of worms there. Many things need to be approved by Congress first and others just may be flat out illegal.
Second, it doesn’t help when the sound bite sized promos for some of these programs are somewhat sensationalist. I understand the need to draw in viewers, but some of them are reckless.
For instance, for weeks Dylan Ratigan’s promos talked only about the corruption in the government. There was no clarification. We just saw the government is corrupt and needs to be fixed! I saw this ad at least five or six times in each afternoon. I know he didn’t say that it was Obama, but when one generalizes “the government”, people these days can easily jump to the conclusion. And, with everyone saying Obama needs to do this or Obama needs to do that, it seems to be a natural conclusion. I know for the first few days, I thought maybe I’d missed some breaking story of corruption in the White House on the news.
Last week, one of the guest hosts (Markey?) on one of the MSNBC shows asked a guest (Jeff Ross?) “Is this Obama’s fault?” when they were discussing the fact that trailers used after Hurricane Katrina and were found to be loaded with formaldehyde are being sold to people going to the Gulf to work on the oil clean-up. Apparently the trailers were sold to brokers with the provision they be labeled as having very high formaldehyde levels so that potential buyers would be able to make informed purchases. Some brokers are, of course, not labeling the trailers.
How the hell can Obama be to blame for unlabeled trailers? Is it something he could have even been aware of? Is it the kind of detail he should be aware of given the multitude of problems he has on his plate? Let’s see, there is unemployment, the Gulf oil spill, illegal immigration, Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, energy legislation, financial reform, Republicans that would rather see this country fail than let Obama get anything done. Among other things.
I get the impression that many of these guys have never worked in the real world. I mean the world where a CEO isn’t even aware, beyond a single bullet point on a ten bullet point PowerPoint slide in a sixty slide presentation, of a program implemented in a single business unit of a 100,000 employee international corporation. I mean something like the way invoices are processed for payment or sourcing for a new disability benefits vendor. The CEO might not even see that one bullet point.
My point is that not everything can be run up the ladder to the top guy. As much as Chris Matthews loves to harp on the chain of command in the gulf spill, how booms are laid and maintained is something the President should not be dealing with. Or where to procure skimmers. Or if BP is preventing clean-up workers from wearing protective gear. He should be able to leave that to the Incident Commander and his/her staff.
That Incident Commander also needs to be able to assign tasks to his/her staff, and so on down the line. Yes, I said should be able to. Anyone who has worked in the real world knows the implementation of orders and assignments is dependent on the people given those orders and assignments doing their jobs.
Ensuring proper completion of the orders and assignments is up to immediate superiors in the field. It should be up to Admiral Allen, or whoever is the Coast Guard commander in the Gulf, and his staff to make sure everything that can be done is being done. The Admiral takes the reports, or 60 page presentation, up the line.
Third, everything is a sound bite or not much more than that. Watching the news, national or local, and almost all political shows is like speed dating. We get just enough information to create an impression but not enough to be informed. There are so few meaningful interviews. For crying out loud, the 4th of July hot dog eating contest got far more coverage than the toxic trailers!
Some show hosts talk (read “rant”) for 2 minutes 45 seconds and allow there guest to speak or answer for 15 seconds. I don’t mind introductions to stories or to the guest. The introductions set the stage. But when the host does the introduction, asks a question but then continues to talk and rephrase the question over and over before the guest gets a word in, the point of the exercise has been defeated. Why not just get a quote and read it? That is all that seems to be wanted or desired by some hosts.
When we do actually get a “discussion” there is little depth or breadth. Why not have one or two days a week when there is a 15 minute segment devoted to a subject? Allow the expert guest to talk for a few of those minutes. Impart information, real, true information. What a concept! What I see is all too often a hit and run manner of interviewing.
The one true exception is Rachel Maddow. She is the one I rely on for real information and real interviews. Bless her! Countdown comes in second. Even though he often goes off on tangents, Keith Olbermann lets his guests actually respond to questions. The rest are talking (read “shouting”) heads that appear to not really need guests. I get the impression they just like to pound out their own thoughts and have people agree with them.
Fourth, hosts, pundits and the like, all scream that Obama and the Democrats need to make lots of noise about how the Republican block legislation, speak untruths and generally do despicable things. Maybe they are trying to make noise. It has to be remembered that if the media does not show it, how are the rest of us supposed to see it? I watched my local news, three different broadcasts on different stations, and did not see a mention of Barton’s apology to BP. That was a biggie to miss.
As I mentioned above, the guys stuffing hotdogs down their gullets trumped deadly, toxic trailers being sold to workers in the Gulf who were just trying to earn money to feed their families. I’d beat some of them don’t have an option since the Republicans decided they don’t need unemployment benefits. That’s a nice option – starve and live on the street or go live in trailers that will make you sick and may kill you.
The important stuff doesn’t rate a mention.
Finally, the opinions of the world are all about perception. In one form or another, just about all of these hosts, commentators and pundits have asked, “Is this Obama’s fault?” And, they ask it almost daily. Tell a lie often enough and it is taken as truth.
Aren’t there two other arms to the government that are either not doing their jobs or are busy giving the country to big business? Aren’t there government departments that were left so dysfunctional by 8 years under Bush Co. that it will take years more to get them into working order again? Is it just easier and more controversial to blame Obama than to go after those who are culpable? Is it just less work? Ah, got you there, didn’t I?
Contrary to what you may think, I’m not giving Obama a pass. I think there are a lot of things that could have been done better and things that should have been done that weren’t. However, I see what he has to work with and the relatively short amount of time he’s had to overcome enormous obstacles. Even before the election last November, President Obama said it was going to be a long, difficult road to travel. He wasn’t wrong.
