There was a recent article in Slate that asked why the mainstream media was having such a tough time figuring out the message of the Occupy Wall Street protestors. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a full-throated supporter of #OWS, but I do think that it’s pretty easy to understand why they’re PO’d. You know the drill: 14 million unemployed, crony capitalism, income inequality, and rising costs for just about everything, including health care and education.
So what’s the great mystery? Things are bad … and they haven’t been good for awhile. People are concerned about the future and they’re upset because the country’s leaders are so busy fighting each other that they aren’t even trying to find a comprehensive solution. I can only assume that it is the very complexity of the issues that are causing so much angst among the pundits and political commentators.
The mainstream media thrives on simple solutions. It has no idea whatsoever of how to report on a story that isn’t about easy fixes so much as it is about anguished human frustration and fear. The media prides itself on its ability to tell you how to clear your clutter, regrout your shower, or purge your closet of anything that makes you look fat—in 24 minutes or less. It is bound to be flummoxed by a protest that offers up no happy endings.
People on right side of the political spectrum have never been happy with the liberal bias they perceive in the mainstream media. If the political left is also starting to tune out these news outlets because of their inability to explore and explain serious issues, how long is it before these sources are abandoned in favor of something more thoughtful and informative?