Principles, Publicity, and Public Health

I started my work on this blog with the full intent of covering the media circus surrounding the government shutdown and Obamacare.  I was going to point out some of the illustrative language used by both sides of the debate such as “holding America hostage” and similar emotion inducing statements.  But then I read the headlines about Ted Cruz’s marathon speech from the senate floor.  Ted Cruz had control of the senate floor since 2:41 pm on Tuesday afternoon and maintained the floor until 12:00 pm today. 

Headlines captured the bias of the media organizations for example

·         Fox’s headline read “Cruz vows to speak against ObamaCare until unable ‘to stand,’ as vote looms” 

·         CNN said “Obamacare: not in a box. Not with a fox.”   “As shutdown looms, Cruz reads from Dr. Seuss.”

·         Washington Post – “Senator Cruz continues night-long attack on Obamacare

·         New York Times – “Senator persists battling health law, irking even many in his own party.”

Though it is true that Cruz did read from Dr. Seuss during his 21 hours at the podium there were many other issues that he addressed such as full time workers being transitioned to part-time employment, politicians who don’t listen to the people, and small business owners.  Mark Rubio answered questions posed by Cruz regarding how Obamacare would have adversely impacted his family when he was young and Cruz was also supported in his views by other senators since from the time that he maintained the floor. 

Now that the marathon speech of Cruz is over the headlines are no more helpful than they were during the more than 21 hours that captured the attention of the media.  Only now the headlines read after more than 21 hours on the floor Cruz votes with the democrats.  It is fascinating to me that the 100-0 vote is publicized all in of the mainstream news outlets and internet, but the idea that the senators voted for cloture is completely lost in translation.  The senators voted unanimously that the issue proceed to be debated in the House of Representative.  Another vote on the issues at large is expected to be held on Friday. 

P.R. and Politics

Last week the American people were faced with a political revelation not often given much consideration. 

The public relations firm Ketchum has been employed by Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Putin, Bush, Obama & Ketchum.  This was brought to the fore after Putin published an op-ed piece in the New York Times which received far reaching notice, both here and abroad and led to government officials attributing feelings of nausea at the article.  This was met by a statement by Senator John McCain who expressed an interest in writing a rebuttal piece in a Russian newspaper the Pravda.  The access to a variety of information in Russia, however presents a stark contrast to the dissemination of ideas that McCain is more accustomed to in the U.S.  Pravda.ru http://english.pravda.ru/ is an extremely anti-American publication as such it is going to be very interesting to see just how badly this plays out for McCain and America once Pravda publishes their rebuttal to the rebuttal. 

Ketchum’s public affairs page opens with the heading “Thanks to social media and other “flattening” technologies, individual ideas can galvanize into movements. Heroes can become villains. And policy issues can capture international attention, travelling the globe practically overnight."  Ketchum has certainly successfully demonstrated that not only can heroes become villains overnight, but with the right P.R. firm a seemingly Russian villain like Putin can also be transformed into a global hero. 
 

War fatigue or too much CSI?

This week on my twitter feed I posted two very different views on Syria one critical and comedic view held by Jon Stewart and the other a very somber message presented by Samantha Powers.  I also included one political narrative in a video discussion with Scott Wilson of the Washington Post.  In reviewing this material I was reminded of one of our first posts wherein we attempted to answer the question “why is a society that is so rich in information populated with people who are so confused about and alienated from politics?”  The three posts illustrate some of the conflicts that arise out of journalism and access to information.  I would like to first point out that the Samantha Powers address is not widely disseminated, nor was the political discourse of Scott Wilson.  The only source of information that was probably viewed by upwards of 20,000 people was Jon Stewart’s, which was an entertaining and compelling view, if not a completely rounded view of the issues at large. 

The narrative of political events occurring in Washington was an example of objectivity in journalism, otherwise the subjectivity of personal opinion and the shaping of public opinion through media outlets can be clearly seen in both Stewart and Powers monologues.  In addition to the use of the media by Obama through presidential addresses. 

The most clearly blatant form of the media being used to influence public opinion with regard to American military involvement in Syria can be seen in the many images, and video montages of the children of Syria who were the victims of the chemical attacks, which has also been distributed by the American government.  It is interesting to me that these graphic images of the brutal realities and injuries of these young children are aired freely without displaying warnings of graphic content.  The display of the atrocities committed on children clearly results in widespread emotional and moral appeal to Americans.  However, it is also interesting to me that despite our collective moral outrage public opinion polls on US military intervention indicate a 36% favorability rating. 

 

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/07/samantha-powers-case-for-striking-syria/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-3-2013/uncle-jonny-stew-s-good-time-syria-jamboree

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/video/inplay/how-can-obama-change-minds-on-syria/2013/09/06/c9a43ea4-173a-11e3-be6e-dc6ae8a5b3a8_video.html

http://www.gallup.com/poll/164282/support-syria-action-lower-past-conflicts.aspx