This sort of dooms-day-scenarios are a favorite of the national media outlets. As I've spoken before about interpreting election results, this sort of deadline tea-leaves is more or less exactly the same. More than anything, prominent "unbiased" pundits will ensure that these narratives persist, and that the administration is wholly unable to move beyond the type of slip-ups and mistakes that plague everyday existence.
Media outlets took the idea that the President wanted a lot of these glitches to be fixed by the end of November to mean that, "The site needs to be flawless by midnight on the last day of November." It's quite incredible to consider the overarching obsession with conflict and chaos that the media has.
More than anything, this gives popular media outlets an absolutely terrible name. Any time I've turned any news outlet on in the past two weeks, this is literally the only story they've been reporting on. Anecdote after anecdote, while throwing in a poll or two about how Republican party has shrugged off the defeat of the government shutdown in October. The idea that the media frames the national political discourse is an extremely generous way of describing its destructive, short-sighted effect on American politics.
http://news.yahoo.com/stakes-high-obamacare-website-hits-deadline-111611255.html;_ylt=A2KJ2PZKsppSzm0AVivQtDMD
I enjoyed this post. Your writing style is easy to understand. I also sense a hint of sarcastic humor in your post. The reason I enjoyed this post is because I, too, have a blog centered on the theme of media bias. So, I can only say I agree whole-heartedly with what you have to say. The media does overdramatize one story for far too long while there are other things of equal, if not more, importance out there. Is the media doing this purposely? Are they keeping us blind to other problems in the world by not reporting them to us? The media spoon-feeds us for a reason. When they do report on a hot topic, they usually misinterpret the information often misleading its views in to a wrong opinion of the matter. The media and its bias certainly do have a destructive, shortsighted effect on American politics.
ReplyDeleteI, too, detected some sarcastic humor. As a tax payer who funds the salary of the Obama administration himself, I think the tax paying bracket of the American population has every right to be upset about the rollout of the website, considering the amount of time and money spent on the so called 'cornerstone' of the president's administration. Well done there... Either way, it'll be interesting to watch it unfold further in the next two years of his presidency.
ReplyDeleteSolid analysis, well-presented! I enjoyed reading your blog this semester.
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