Reaction vs. Reality – The Media Delusion

The Democrats agreed to a deal with Republicans, ending the government shutdown. It is strange to think how much effort and how many column inches were produced to cover an event that lasted but three days. Was it truly just an attempt to fill the 24-hour news cycle? If it was, why were so many of the articles ultimately proven wrong?

The last few days have been more than just the leftist media trying to report with their own brand of spin, it has been one of the largest attempts to sway public opinion ever perpetrated on the American people.

Pushing Narrative

When the shutdown was announced, the complicit media saw an opportunity to control the narrative of how this would be presented to the public.

It began with outlets pushing the idea that this was a “Trump Shutdown,” and that it was the president’s inability to make deals that had caused it. When Minority Leader Chuck Schumer began his “White House talks like negotiating with Jell-O” tirade, the media followed suit portraying Donald Trump as a stumbling block in the negotiations.

The leftist media was quick to point out that #TrumpShutdown was the top trending hashtag on social media. But when it was swiftly overtaken by #SchumerShutdown, their first response was to blame it on “Russian Bots.”

This was played up as “Schumer’s big moment,” he had the government where he wanted them…And then it fell apart.

Cognitive Dissonance

So why did it all come crumbling down? And why didn’t the media see what the American public knew to be true?

From the very start, the people realized that this was a shutdown over DACA. And whether or not they wanted a deal to be done, most folk could see that the Democrats were weighing America in one hand, and DACA recipients in the other.

The news media managed to convince themselves that the Democrats had the right of this, and as they started pumping out what amounts to little more than anti-Trump propaganda, they failed to realize that the only people they were convincing were themselves.

They told themselves a lie and repeated it so often that it became their reality.

A Failure of the Press

Only two things have been achieved by this Grand Folly. The people are now aware that news networks are agenda, rather than fact, driven. And the Republicans know that they don’t have to play the media game quite so hard.

Given enough time, the leftist narrative will eventually push itself too far, leaving them looking ridiculous and untrustworthy in the eyes of the viewer. If the politicians just step back and let the complicit reporters whip themselves into a frenzy of righteous zeal, they will overstep to the point where their assertions are openly ridiculed.

This is not a happy day for America. To awake with the realization that the majority of your news is biased claptrap does democracy no favors. But it is, perhaps, a necessary step. As the scales fall from their eyes, the media folk may have a personal Damascene moment, and only then can they rejoin us on the path back to reality.