Many, including my good friends are trying to make political sense of President Obama’s recent negotiation strategy. The problem, however, is that most of the people that take the time to flesh out a logical analysis of Obama’s strategy are introducing one variable into the equation that might not belong: logic. Let’s put aside the politicians for a second and examine the partisanship of the populace, which may be the real culprit.
Cross-posted at Gnomanomics
A CNN opinion article pointed out the “evisceration” of the bully pulpit. The crux of the argument is that because today’s media includes so many more outlets and each person relies on a different combination of them, a President cannot talk as directly to the American people as he once could. Not since Reagan, the article argues, has a President been able to take his case directly to the American people because we now have more choices than just the President or nothing. While I agree, I would like to make a slightly different point that was only touched on by the article.
Look at your bookmark bar on your browser. Focus on the news outlets. How uniformly do they reflect your political leanings? Yes, there are absolutely some out there who take a look at both left and right news and opinion sources, but I would bet the vast majority sticks to their bread and butter. Huffpo, Talking Points Memo, Dailykos, and MSNBC for the left. Redstate, Drudge Report, Pajamas Media, and Fox for the right. After appreciating this, I think the question isn’t is the media too dispersed for the message to get to the people? Rather, the question is if any substantial number of people hears the President’s message not pre-packaged through their own bias.
Here you can find a few great examples of how Fox News includes bias headlines even when they are using “neutral” sources such as AP. The left-leaning outlets do this too, of course, but I couldn’t find an easy to link breakdown. All you really have to do to see the bias on either side is wait for the next big moment in politics to happen and do a split screen showing the headlines for Huffpo and Red State.
The problem, therefore, isn’t that the President can’t reach the American public anymore. No news outlets that receive any kind of viewership or readership can afford to not cover the president. The problem is that, with so many sources with varying degrees of bias, everyone can get their fill of the news in the exact tone they wish. Gone are the days when broadcast television journalism was the main source of news for the American people and, with that, gone is the fidelity to reporting the news and not focusing solely on shaping it. Almost no outlet has a politically diverse audience, so why not give them what they want to hear? Sure racks up the hits.
We might get a perfect example of this in just weeks. As Obama ramps up his appearances, few will be able to say they didn’t hear Obama speak on the debt ceiling negotiations. From a third-party perspective that should be enough since he has offered MORE than what the Republican’s wanted, put everything on the table, and showed a willingness to break with his party for the sake of the country. What more could most voters want? But depending on the sites you visit, that doesn’t end up being the narrative. On the left, Obama is either playing a beautiful game or is beyond weak, depending on how far left you are. On the right, he’s an idiot because raising taxes on the job creators at this point would be devastating to the economy.
Today, we get our news with a heaping helping of analysis. Just like people who stick to romantic comedies instead of horror movies because they don’t like to feel frightened, most of us take that dose of analysis in the flavor most palatable to us. Based on that, even when the president’s words do reach the American people, it’s been repackaged to reinforce your thinking, no matter what the original point.
There is little logic in today’s politics largely because there is no agreed upon set of facts, no matter how basic the information. Few people even have arguments, let alone pragmatic discussions with the other side of the political spectrum because they don’t need to in order to get their fix. They can merely click on the links in their bookmark bar that give them the stuff that feels best.
May the most popular media win.