His thesis is that the party surrendered its leadership to the media.
Extremism and conflict make for bad politics but great TV. Over the past two decades, conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment. An industry has grown up to serve that segment—and its stars have become the true thought leaders of the conservative world. The business model of the conservative media is built on two elements: provoking the audience into a fever of indignation (to keep them watching) and fomenting mistrust of all other information sources (so that they never change the channel). As a commercial proposition, this model has worked brilliantly. As journalism, not so much. As a tool of political mobilization, it [incites] followers to the point at which they force leaders into confrontations where everybody loses.
He also shows how this media creates a fantasy world of false information.
No comments:
Post a Comment