The Village Idiot  

I would just like to thank whoever out there listened to my first show, and thank you for putting up with my lack of program format and potential ranting. As it was my first show I wanted to use that time to get a sense of how this web-radio stuff worked.

I feel that it is appropriate to make some supportive comments linked to the topics I discussed on the program that have occurred since I spoke about the media, and its effects on political and social thought. Previous to my show Barack Obama was the unchallenged and runaway favorite in the democratic primary. According to the news at that time he was on a roll all the way to the white house and right past republican nominee and presidential hopeful John McCain. Things, since then, have changed dramatically!

The night of my show Hillary Clinton went 3 out of 4 states winning Texas, Rhode Island, and Ohio. The news previous to this competition looked down upon Hillary and spoke of her as a loser that needs to drop out in order to better the democratic party. It seems that following this primary coverage things have changed, and it is for the very same reasons we discussed. If she is winning races, she is popular, and if she is popular than the media makes money. The media adores popularity. If this wasn't true we wouldn't see mass hist aria following Britney Spears on a daily basis.

The fact that Hillary won provides room for the news to include her back into the discussion. The fact that they can say "she has made a comeback" or calling her once again "the comeback candidate" she is now worthy of news coverage as she garners a particular amount of attention once again. There is a "battle" now, and everyone knows Americans love "battles". Maybe the next competition Hillary will beat Obama by only a small margin and the news will urge Obama to drop out regardless of his lead, and maybe Hillary will lose the next competition by the same margin and her current praise will once again turn to negativity.

The simple, simple truth here is that the news is news only if it gets an audience. If it is not capable of receiving an audience, and more particularly a large one, the story is just simply not news. If by some chance there happens to be a day that the news is incapable of finding a news story that garners such attention, they will find a way to make one. News is the product of the media. It is that which it distributes to the public, and if it's not selling well they tend to put something else on.

This effects us greatly! It is what causes polls to change so dramatically. The democratic national polls went from up 5.8% for Obama to up 1.2% the very following day when Hillary's attention shifted following her victories. This is news ladies in gentlemen, it is our window on reality. But yet it's not...