If you’ve been watching the news – any news – over the last few weeks you are probably under the impression that college campuses across America are completely overrun by protestors. It would seem that college students have suddenly become experts in the centuries-old issues surrounding political lines in Palestine and Israel and the “sacred” temple mount in Jerusalem. College students have just had enough and many are being arrested for riot-like activities. It’s clearly one of the top issues facing the two candidates for the US Presidency this year.
You probably believe all of that, but none of it’s true.
The truth there are an estimated 15 million college students in America and there have only been some 2300 arrests nationwide. Of those, only a fraction have actually been college students, with New York City reporting that fewer than have of those arrested were actually college students. Some see protests like frat parties and just have to crash. Expressed as a percentage, only .015% of all college students have been arrested and many of the protests have now dissipated.
There are many and varied polls out there about what matters most to the average American voter, and not one of them places the Israel/Palestine conflict in the top ten. In fact, most show it to be in the 12-15 range out of 15 issues cited. People are primarily concerned about inflation, women’s rights, climate change, housing, immigration and getting money out of politics. Why, then, are the headlines and top stories presenting things that aren’t really huge news and that most people aren’t that concerned about?
Simple!
All you have to do is set up a camera near a college protest, turn it on, and bam! You’ve got your lead story, complete with images that virtually explain and are easily tackled by talking heads who don’t do a lot of investigative journalism. The conflict in Gaza is equally easy, as images coming from that conflict are ghastly and there are plenty of miserable people around crying about their lost loved ones. It’s visceral. It takes little or no explaining. We can also see this with the ongoing criminal trials of the former President, which involves a porn star, plenty of scandal and a man named Pecker. The former President reliably emerges from the courtroom every day to semi-coherently decry the American justice system and warn everyone that they could be next! Again, the headlines write themselves.
They’re also lazy, at best, and stupid, at worst.
It’s a little harder to cover the real news and stories with more than a camera and a talking head. Talking about climate change requires research, statistics and computer graphics. Women’s rights might be offensive to the portion of the audience that hasn’t decided if they are women or not and might even threaten the profit margins of the corporations that own America’s “news” networks, so best to save that for the weekend edition. Likewise, inflation is a challenge because the only way to fight that is to make people smarter shoppers and convince them to stop buying crap they don’t need. Hmmm. Also problematic. How about getting money out of politics? Republicans and Democrats alike recognize this as a critical issue and I would argue that none of the other big issues gets seriously addressed without ending Citizens United and the dark money phenomenon. Yeah, but to make that happen the very people who are getting rich from those dark money bribes … errrr … contributions would have to decide they don’t want the money.
Yeah. Not happening.
So yeah, just find a nice protest or war zone and roll film. It will be easier that way. No one has to really do any work.
“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see” is an expression that dates back centuries, attributed to both Benjamin Franklin and Edgar Allan Poe, among others. Imagine what those esteemed gentlemen would have to say about the modern industry which calls itself “news.” Much like the acclaimed film “Oppenheimer,” the “news” does contain elements of things that really happened. There are true stories at the root of most headlines (unless you’re watching something like FOX, where they stopped using factual material long ago). The problem is, like “Oppenheimer,” the real story and the real people are a little more complicated than what’s presented. It’s easier to hit the highlights, gloss over the more difficult facts and just cut to the chase.
People are mostly interested in the explosion at the end, anyway.
-B
Ishmael's Legacy 