Drama. It’s damn near everywhere you look anymore. What ever happened to comedy? Everyone always points to political correctness when we talk about the death of comedy, but I really think there’s more to it than that.
In 1983, Cheers, Taxi, Happy Days, M*A*S*H, The Jefferson’s, Three’s Company, Mork and Mindy and Laverne and Shirley were all in production. All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show and a host of others were in syndication and playing in reruns all over the tube. Carol Burnett, Flip Wilson, Benny Hill and Dave Allen had comedy shows that would keep you in stitches.
Every one of those shows touched on social issues but each and every one of them did it with a lighthearted sense of humor for the most part. Any given night of the week you could turn the television on and be entertained with laughter.
What have we got now? Reality (and I use that word in the loosest possible sense) television, legal dramas, cop dramas, hospital dramas, zombie dramas, fire and paramedic dramas, etc. The cable networks that specialize in history and science have even changed their programming to nearly an entire lineup of over-dramatized reality programs. I think season 9 of The Deadliest Naked and Afraid Ice Road Alaskan Gold Mining Pawn Pickers is set to air next month.
I’ll give them a little bit of credit…some attempt to touch on social issues. However, in most cases they’re bringing the worst of humanity into your home; disease, abductions, serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, corrupt cops, a militarized police force…there’s no end to the amount of scary shit people see in their own living rooms every night.
So why is this stuff all over our television? Because we watch it. Much in the same way a fender bender on an interstate highway will cause a four mile long traffic jam, we just can’t look away from the drama. I read an article in a psych book a few years back that claimed we like to see others in unfortunate circumstances because it makes us feel better about the state of our own lives. It’s difficult to argue the logic when you take a look at we choose to spend our viewing hours being entertained by.
No matter why we watch it though, one thing’s for sure; it’s only on because we watch it so vehemently. It’s all about ratings with the folks at the networks because ratings bring the advertising dollars. If we weren’t watching this garbage, there would be no money in it and it wouldn’t be on the screen.
So…with that thought in mind let’s take a quick look at the media. Every word spoken and every scene shown is edited or twisted through biased commentary to produce the most dramatic effect for the networks’ target audience which, these days, seems to be divided pretty equally between a liberal or conservative outlook. You may get one “feel good” story thrown in for a little sense of balance, but if you watch an hour of network news, I’ll guarantee you that 99% of what you see is over-dramatized propaganda that’s being spewed over the airwaves to scare you or entice you into thinking in a specific way. You’ll surely get some facts in there, but even the undeniable hard core facts that they relay will be presented in a specific way designed to illicit a response of some sort. It’s all emotion driven…logic be damned.
Now…with THAT thought in mind…next time you watch the news do yourself a favor…notice how many times the talking heads refer to social media. Better yet, line up a bunch of shot glasses and every time they refer to Twitter or Facebook take a shot of Cuervo. I’d bet you that most of us wouldn’t make it to the second commercial break without passing out.
The networks have figured out that the quickest way to pinpoint what their target audience is emotional about is to follow the trends on social media and see what’s triggering the most volatile debates. I check Facebook in the early morning hours most days while the news is playing in the background, and damned if the meme’s on my timeline aren’t a mirror image of what the newscasters are droning on about. I noticed this a few years ago, but never paid it much attention until lately…something dawned on me a weeks ago and I’ve been following a few different topics just to see if my thinking was on the right track.
The great American Showman and Circus Entrepreneur Phineas T. Barnum is credited with saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. Herein lies the problem….because there’s no such thing as bad publicity we’re making the people we like the least filthy rich.
I’m going to use Colin Kaepernick (CK) as my example, not because I think #7 needs beaten on anymore, but because his story is the one that will be most recognizable. Megan Rapinoe is probably on the same path as Kaepernick, but we won’t know the outcome of her story for a couple years. You could apply this scenario to politicians, actors, music artists….damn near anyone in the public eye. But for the sake of a well known example, I’ll use Kaepernick.
Four years ago CK was a benched quarterback for the San Francisco 49er’s making $12.7 million per season who was getting cut from the roster at the end of the season. He had nearly become a nobody in the NFL as his performance on the field declined drastically and his lethargic demeanor escalated drawing disapproval from his coaches, teammates and fans. His paydays from professional football were probably nearing the end of their days. Then one Sunday during the preseason he refused to stand for the National Anthem. OH MY….the DRAMA that would ensue.
Sports and News media hit him for it the next day, but their reporting was nothing compared to the firestorm taking place in social media. As he continued his pregame sideshow over the next few weeks and other players across the league decided to join with him, the whole country divided with people praising him for taking a stand against a perceived injustice or chastising him for the lack of respect to the flag of the country who’d enabled him to prosper and whose constitution enabled him the right to protest. The backlash from the American public was monstrous and the roars of disdain grew louder and louder on social media until threats of violence were being made and politicians were getting involved. The louder the roars got in social media, the more the mainstream media roared along.
By the beginning of the next season, not a single owner of an NFL team wanted Kaepernick on their roster and he found himself unemployed. Social media was again buzzing with chants that justice was being served or another injustice was being done.
However…due to all that social media, and subsequent network media attention, CK filed a grievance against the NFL citing that all 32 teams ‘blackballed’ him because of the media backlash due to his decision to exercise his Constitutional right to stage a peaceful protest. The league settled the suit for a reported $10,000,000. As well, Nike followed all the mayhem and noticed that one of their key target demographics seemed to be ardent supporters of CK and signed the washed up quarterback to an advertising contract to the tune of $22,000,000. I have no clue what he was charging for his personal appearances at the time, but I imagine they were pretty lucrative as well.
When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists in the air at the 1968 Olympics they were on the podium wearing the medals they’d just earned. Lew Alcindor, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Billy Jean King…all were at the very top of their professions when they decided to make their statements. They used their celebrity to make a statement heard, and for the most part they made that statement with some degree of class. Kaepernick was barely holding a roster spot on team that couldn’t win a forfeit. His statement fueled a national debate; that debate made him a celebrity. P.T. Barnum hit the nail on the head…there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Take a minute to consider what would have happened to Kaepernick had there been no backlash on social media. Had the Twitterverse not exploded with pro and con comments turning into very colorful meme’s and arguments on his choice of protest and venue do you think the media coverage would’ve been as extensive? If the media coverage had faded away quickly and quietly would there have been players across the league taking an knee the following weeks? Without the outrage poured across social media for so long, would Kaepernick had grounds for his suit against the NFL? Had the social media frenzy not spurred the mainstream media frenzy and the rest of the dominoes fell in the way they did, would Nike have ever chosen #7 to headline their advertising campaigns? I truly believe the answer to all those questions is “No”. I honestly think that CK would have faded into unemployment and ended up working as a radio sportscaster for some AM station in southern Oregon that most of America would never hear.
Social media made Colin Kaepernick a pariah. Then it made him a martyr. Then it made him independently wealthy. Here’s the bitch of it…you and I are social media. When you peel the onion back far enough, you always come to the heart of it. At the heart of the Kaepernick saga, the disdain We The People had for him, and the need for the other half of We The People to defend him ultimately set him up for life. Ladies and Gentlemen….at the heart of that onion, we’re the problem. And it’s a hell of a lot worse than the Kaepernick debacle.
Like I said earlier, Kaepernick is just a simple example. It’s happening every day. It’s happening as I’m typing this. If you’re out there bashing or defending Megan Rapinoe, President Trump, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes, Chick-Fil-A, Ilhan Omar, Michelle Obama…anyone who’s spouting over-dramatic rhetoric and craving media attention….the more you see them in your facebook feed the more you’re going to see them in the mainstream media…and the more you see them there, the more legitimate they become to the national conversation….and the more convoluted that national conversation gets with arguments about who won’t visit the White House, the hiring practices of a fast food chain or whether bovine flatulence is causing the polar icecaps to melt, the less likely it is that conversation will actually produce viable results.
Think about this for a second…the two politicians you see in social and mainstream media more than any others at this time…AOC and President Trump, right? Not a newscast goes by that their “tweets” aren’t referred to. Now…consider that four years ago one of them was a bar tender and the other a reality show host. Throughout their campaigns both were praised and chastised in the mainstream media consistently for their statements and choice of words in social media. Both are constantly heralded or crushed in Facebook memes and that fact seems to make the top stories on the national news programs on a daily basis, keeping them relevant, regardless how senseless their current messages seem to be.
Our need for drama is slowly killing the country from the inside out. Social media gives everyone a podium to speak their mind. It also gives the people who make a fortune from the spinning of drama a map to the thoughts that drive We The People. Remember this: With great power comes great responsibility. Our inability to keep our opinions to ourselves or to at least share them solely in a forum where we’re less likely to cause a volatile argument, is turning virtually insignificant members of society into household names, millionaires and in some cases politicians with power they have no idea what to do with.
Every overly-dramatic statement, every argument, every negative meme, every story you read and share openly in social media is potentially the first bone to fall in a chain of dominoes that leads to the mainstream media giving the person you’re bashing the attention they’re so desperately seeking. Make no mistake, mainstream media has buildings filled of people scouring the web to see what’s dramatic enough in the voices of the American public to help push their agenda, keep their ratings up and keep the advertising dollars flowing in. We’re making their jobs too damn easy. They don’t have to go dig for the real stories and they don’t have to necessarily tell us the truth….they just keep telling us what our social media presence indicates we want to hear.
Now….with all that disheartening reality being dropped on your computer screen….there’s an upside… a simple cure. Be positive. Cut out all the damn drama. Always be positive in what you say on social media. If you have something negative to get off your chest, by all means, do so. But, say it in a private forum, a private message, a text or …hell…pick up the phone and rant to your buddy. It’s not that hard to do. Before you post something just ask yourself if it’s relevant to the masses. If you just feel the need to post something, talk about music, movies, puppies, your favorite restaurant….hell, you don’t have to constantly promote a “shining happy people holding hands” mentality, but nothing…NOTHING…good comes from promoting undue drama.
Let me tell you something you already know…most people have enough drama in their own personal lives that the rest of us know nothing about…so when they log into social media how about we start giving everyone something to smile about and less shit to frown about? It’s contagious…I promise you. Smiling people cause smiles in others. Positive people wreck the negativity in those they encounter.
We’re the key, people. Each and every one of us matters, and if we all choose to shed the drama and promote positive messages we can change the outlook of those we make contact with, as well as what the mainstream media shoves in our faces…and…in time, that will change the voices that have a say in that national conversation that’s not going anywhere lately.