16 June 2011
GroupThink Lurks in the Media
You've heard of GroupThink if you read TIME magazine in the 1960s and given its rotten reputation for group dynamics one would like to believe that no reputable news organization today would be guilty of it. The consolidation of television broadcasting company ownerships over the past fifteen years has had the result of the same corporations owning the "major networks" and the cable news channels. They all run the same stories with the same emphasis. On cable stations, CNN, NBC and Fox are the major competitors. In the Los Angeles broadcast area, the public broadcasting stations carry The News Hour with Jim Lehrer at 6 PM only, once the goto news program for real issues of importance and good investigative reporting. Besides its own channel news programs, BBC-America world news is carried by two PBS stations in the LA region. MSNBC vs. Fox News offers cable viewers (who subscribe to expanded channel packages) ongoing gotchas between liberals and conservatives presented earnestly and loudly, as if each is trying to get everyone in the room's attention by speaking over all other conversations.
Fox News and MSNBC provide each other with the daily issues, to be given their respective political slant, according to what is happening in Congress, the Administration, the President--always in the barrel, and individual political icons in office or not.
For political issues domestic and foreign, it really does not matter if one watches CNN, ABC, CBS, or NBC. Viewers choose the anchor person, rather than content.
CNBC and Bloomberg vie for financial news audiences. Talk about GroupThink--these two broadcasters focus on Wall Street, international finance, the Treasury Department and Commodities. The financial markets thrive on rumors and gossip, which daily display raw, unbridled GroupThink among traders, buyers and sellers, and CNBC and Bloomberg present viewers with exemplars who believe their market perceptions are uniquely formed to optimize the accumulation and retention of capital.
About the year 2005, a new phenomenon in television news broadcasting came in the form of comedian commentary on what the "legitimate" news broadcasters were reporting. Johnny Carson had established the role of the Opening Dialogue in late night talk shows and Jay Leno on NBC and David Letterman on CBS continued to entertain with material full of irony, satire and rhetorical questions about the news. On the Comedy Network, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show became the primary news source for students and progressives. Bill Maher's series on HBO offers more sarcastic commentary or simply let situations and politicians speak themselves into idiocy. He could not be renewed on ABC due to the often R-rated, rambunctious discussions among his guests. The Democratic Party's majority in the House by the November 2006 elections and the Presidency in 2008 could in part be attributed to the public's ability to see the nation's leaders try to doubletalk through serious ineptness, stupidity and hidden crimes thanks to the efforts of these comedians.
Our current political parties in Congress and in state legislatures, however, seem enslaved by public opinion poles and behind-the-scenes party operatives, like Karl Rove and Jim Carvill, while campaign coffers swell with donations from lobbyists. I really distrust the public opinion polls, because most of the public understands the news and editorial opinions from the major media sources listed above.
One example of the dangerous status of broadcast news media is illustrated by coverage during the current recession:
Back in 2008, the Bush Administration found itself faced with the collapse of the mortgage credit market, Wall Street giant, financial services entities fearing bankruptcy, rising rates of unemployment and seemingly paralyzed financial markets.
In October 2008, the Treasury Department proposed a $700 billion bailout or rescue plan to be funded by the government consisting of loans of cash to major banks and investment firms and the automobile industry, but without any increased taxation or revoking of Bush's tax cuts intended to enable the wealthiest individuals to provide more investment capital to stimulate the economy. Since Ronald Reagan began the supply-side, monetary theory of Milton Friedman in the 1980s, the Republic Party has viewed income tax cuts as the primary means for limiting or reducing the role and size of the federal government.
In June 2011, the Republican majority in the House is trying once again to reduce the size of government by cutting funding for entitlement programs and by blocking any attempt to increase tax revenues--despite a growing deficit and a rising national debt. Even as some conservative Republicans and some Democrats state they are willing to block legislation to increase the national debt limit, they refuse to consider raising taxes and cutting subsidies to industries. GroupThink among these legislators unchallenged by broadcast television news content may cause the US dollar to lose its status as the primary safe currency for world capitalism. If Treasury Bonds require higher interest rates to attract purchasers, our national debt problems could overwhelm the international financial system. Billions of people would be affected and so many will be hurt or destroyed should this happen.
Wanda Sykes' commentary from October 2008 remains apt. Hers was not comedy then nor is it now.
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