Echo Chambers
"You have these echo chambers built around reporters who are media personalities and who tweet using the name of their papers and networks they write for with no editorial oversight whatsoever." – Ron Coleman
I just finished watching Ron Coleman on Michael Malice's "Your Welcome," and while the entire hour was fantastic, I was really struck by the above comment. We live in an age where a blue check signifies authority and validates every last tweet or post regardless of their reliability. This is beyond stupid. Whether it's a politician who says one thing and does another or a holier-than-thou actress who bribed their kid's way into a "prestigious" university, the examples of unfettered "turthiness," keep adding up. And with few exceptions (i.e. normal people) there is little in the way of accountability.
At some point I want spend some time researching to see if I can determine when the line between op-ed journalism and facts-based journalism irrevocably blurred. If I dad who was a journalist were still alive, he'd probably say that the idea of facts-based journalism was never more than lip-service at any point in time. Certainly yellow journalism existed in the 1800's.
Despite movies that romanticize the so-called heyday of objectivism journalism like George Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck," I could also argue that Edward R Murrow was responsible for putting the echo chamber on Television. While Clooney's movie depitcs the Noble Journalist™ just after the truth and lamented the public's increasing love of entertainment television over educaitonal programming as being the real downfall of journalism. He also blamed advertising, proving yet again how stupid journalists are when it comes to understanding where their paycheck comes from.
According to the wikipedia page, "...Murrow had complained to Paley he could not continue doing the show if the network repeatedly provided (without consulting Murrow) equal time to subjects who felt wronged by the program." In other words, there was only one "correct" view and other viewpoints would need to be vetted through him.
Clooney's movie is one viewpoint. The other is that Edward R Murrow was a sanctimonious asshole. In other words, he is Jim Acosta without the chain-smoking.
As a proud member of Generation X, I have had a healthy disregard for all forms of authority. I bristle any time an entity says "You can trust us." Growing up in the days of the PMRC and Enron will do to that someone. This is also true of the baby boomer generation. Many in my generation never understood why people put such blind faith corporations, including the corporate media.
As a side note, Generation X was also famously known as the hardest demographic to advertise to, which explains how atrocious a lot of ads at the time were, who pandered to my group. We were called "Slackers," a term nicked from the Richard Linklater film of the same name.
It is not without a hint of irony I've devoted my career to advertising. I think in an act of subversion.
Other shit films like "Singles," also propagated this myth that Generation X were idiotic. I remember being dragged to this film with a girl (space) friend as opposed to a girlfriend, and both leaving the film feeling angry and also upset that Paul Westerberg sold out so much. But I digress.
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned explored the notion that writers write about what they know. I am only just realizing that growing up in a specific generation informed my writing as much as any other life experience. I wrote New Roman Times, as a cynical response to the media and social media circa now. But on another level I could have easily written this during the Bill Clinton era, as we were watching the double speak unfold in blatant ways we'd never seen before. 'I did not have sex with that woman," being the classic example. How could not have a dose of healthy skepticism living through those times?
I created a book trailer based on the hypocritical double speak and highlight the fact that authority figures like politicians and journalists constantly throw our way on a daily basis on the news, and social media. and I worked with editor Jeff Tober to do this. The result was shocking, acidic and for me, unsurprising.
The real challenge for me was baking this in to the novel. Every chapter is designed to negate the previous one. It is up to the reader to cut through the chaos and disruption and form their own opinion. In an age of echo chambers, this has become a lost art.
In David Lowery's viral "Letter To Emily White," blog post he said this of the millennial generation. "Congratulations, your generation is the first generation in history to rebel by unsticking it to the man..."
Thankfully there are some people who still have cognitive ability. And I'm seeing some seeds of disbelief growing in the youngest generation. And sibelief is something we need more of.
If you dig this, you'll dig New Roman Times, the novel based on the Camper Van Beethoven album of the same name, written at the request of the band. It's available as a digital download on iBook as well as a digital, paperback and hardcover version via Amazon.