Is the Medium the Message? Discrimination and the Medium

In 1964, media analyst Marshall McLuhan suggested that a given medium was more important than its message. In 2009, I sat down with Dan Rather, Geraldo Rivera, Tim Zagat, Amy Goodman, Rachel Sklar, Carol Jenkins, Bill Pullman, Bob Simon, John Ziegler, Juan Williams, Kevin Macdonald , Mary Alice Williams, and Stephen Cannell to see what they had to say about the changing face of our news media.

Watch 'Discrimination and the Medium' Part One: Women & The Media

Discrimination in the Medium Part 1 from Kimberly Butler on Vimeo.

Watch 'Discrimination and the Medium' Part Two: Coverage of Hillary Clinton & Sarah Palin

Discrimination in the Medium Part 2 from Kimberly Butler on Vimeo.

Thank you for following "Is the Medium the Message?" As always, please leave any and all feedback. We'd love to hear from you, the viewer.

Additional Credits
Anthony Brian Smith, Writer/Producer
Elberta Gaither, Director/Editor
Chris Ewen, Sound Editor

 

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Comments

[nixrox04]

07:29 AM on 03/31/2010

You need to have character prior to it being assassinated. Being a character of dubious qualities does not qualify.

[nana4g]

10:50 PM on 03/30/2010

The woman is flawed. She has defined herself. She is so full of pathology. And the people around her, as well as herself, are using this "character" to make money. The TV is full of weird characters making lots of money by being weird. The problem is that she has been given a serious platform to speak about "government" and this country and to influence people and she knows nothing about government, is not even a politician, and is crazed. She is a screaming shrew. Anyone with any seriousness to them should be ashamed to associate with her and the media has created a monster.

[RCLGuard]

07:42 PM on 03/30/2010

Is it just clear to me or do other people see that it's obvious Ziegler wants to sleep with Palin?

[Piatt]

01:19 PM on 03/30/2010

I thought "personal responsibility" was one of the cornerstones of Republicanism. The fascinating thing about Palin is the extent to which she's willing to go to evade responsibility. Everything that boomerangs on her always turns out to have been someone else's fault or the result of some conspiracy. She may have the body of a forty five year-old but her mental and emotional development stopped somewhere around eleven or twelve.

[ProfessorDuh]

04:19 PM on 03/30/2010

Palin says she’s answering a “Higher Calling.”
And God said unto Sarah, “Abandon ye the office to which thou wert elected. And pity thyself. Poor, poor Sarah. The whole of the universe revolves around thee, now and forever. Thou art awesome! Thou betcha!”

[OBroadhurst]

12:05 PM on 03/30/2010

Perhaps someone might explain to me how telling the truth about Palin somehow maligns her?

[AGarcia]

12:37 PM on 03/30/2010

I agree. I found it disheartening that the WMC spokesperson seemed to defend Palin with charges of sexism. Palin was without substance, she made her "personal narrative", her self (looks included) the story. She tried to capitalize on her femininity, attractiveness and the media's fascination with her. Feminism should be about the truth in discrimination but also how women utilize their sexual power.

[dwedge]

10:27 AM on 03/30/2010

We live in interesting times. Sarah Palin, John Ensign and the Pope all being viciously attacked by the "lamestream media". Is there anything these 3 have in common? Oh yeah, they all refuse to be intimidated by the media, and they all proclaim their innocence far and wide.

[thomasjo]

11:32 AM on 03/30/2010

Oh and don't forget they're all crazy liars who continually have to backtrack and change their stories.

[ProfessorDuh]

01:29 PM on 03/30/2010

And they're all guilty as he11.

[ProfessorDuh]

07:10 AM on 03/30/2010

Assassinating Palin's character would be as difficult a job as hunting invisible rabbits. There's nothing there.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

02:03 PM on 03/29/2010

Character assassination? Doesn't something have to actually be alive or exist before you can kill it?

[ebanks84]

01:01 PM on 03/29/2010

This is a man's world and will forever be a man's world. They will NEVER admit or recognize the fact that women are stronger, wiser, more intelligent, and more empathetic than they will ever be. That's why they took control of this world and refuse to let it go because they know that if women EVER got in control, things would be better and more peaceful in the entire world.

That's just my personal opinion now so be nice :) because I know the men will try to annihilate my comments!

[ZombyWoof]

02:09 PM on 03/29/2010

I don't have that kind of faith in either gender.

We'd still have many of the same problems and some different problems.

[ebanks84]

12:21 PM on 03/31/2010

Yes, we would at this point. My comment meant from the beginning of time, both should have had equal access to all positions of life. But once the bible took hold of all men, it immediately placed women in the back of the class structure. So right now, under our present prism, it wouldn't make a difference at all.

[VioletDatura]

05:29 PM on 03/29/2010

Are you trying to say that in a more equal and just world, Sarah Palin would have credence?

'fraid not. She's an idiot.

[ebanks84]

08:39 PM on 03/29/2010

In any world, Pailin has no credence. When I speak of women ruling, I mean intelligent women only. Make no mistake. Not all women are qualified that's for sure.

[AlFeldzamen]

09:44 AM on 03/29/2010

The calendar does not lie. Sarah Palin was married, in a hastily arranged elopement at that, on August 29, 1988. Her first child, a full-term baby (as her own physician wrote, on the very eve of the election), was born on April 20, 1989. These facts are available on the Internet. Medically speaking -- and this is a fact -- a full-term birth requires 37 weeks or more of gestation after the conception. But this baby had less than 34 weeks. Anybody with a computer calendar can readily verify this.

So it is an almost inescapable conclusion that the conception occurred before the wedding, and was pre-marital. And recognition of the pregnancy led to the rushed elopement.

That this holier-than-thou, abstinence and chastity promoting, anti-sex-education, fundamentalist posturing politician would herself engage in pre-marital sex displays her as a deceitful hypocrite. No?

[lvdragonlady]

10:21 AM on 03/29/2010

Well said, Thanks

[Garybot]

02:55 PM on 03/29/2010

So you feel that someone who has made mistakes in her life, as we all do, has nothing worthwhile to help others avoid the same mistakes.

I didn't realize you lefties had changed your thinking so much.

[VioletDatura]

05:36 PM on 03/29/2010

No, he's saying that anyone who makes these decisions has no place to stand when it comes to claiming she's a part of real America and those of us who are not all about God as she claims are OUTSIDE of real America. He's saying someone who has made decisions like these in her life has no place lecturing anyone on abstinence, especially when her own children, the very people one would think she'd have thought to impress with these ideals she claims to believe are SO IMPORTANT, apparently never heard of abstinence.

It's the hypocrisy of her stance that Al was referring to.

[Piatt]

01:22 PM on 03/30/2010

She apparently didn't learn enough to help her daughter avoid the same "mistake."

[headexplody]

09:06 AM on 03/29/2010

No "character assassination" of Palin. She had no good character to start with. It just became obvious.

[GrandmaBEE]

09:15 AM on 03/29/2010

Agree. She only played at politics as an avenue to further her real desire to be a wealthy celebrity. To bad for all the little people she has had to step on along the way. Let them e@t cake.

[ebanks84]

01:03 PM on 03/29/2010

Amen and any woman who tries to take up for her is a weakling for sure. We all know that she is nothing but mouth almighty with no substance whatsoever.

[VioletDatura]

05:38 PM on 03/29/2010

Well, she is pretty. No, really, she is. I think RightWing women want to identify with pretty looks, because, you know, that's more important than what's inside the head.

[jschmiec]

12:59 AM on 03/29/2010

Exactly how much have these women suffered? Hilary Clinton is obviously a qualified candidate for high office, but she probably wouldn't be where she is today if it wasn't for her husband's success. The same situation, but with genders reversed probably wouldn't play out the same way. I can think of a couple females who gained entry to a national spotlight through a male relative's career (Elizabeth Dole, Liz Cheney), but I can't think of a man who became a national figure after their wife was elected. Palin's rise seems almost totally predicated on her looks and personal charm. While the media may have treated them differently because they are women, they have both in fact benefited from the different way that society judges and responds to women. It is not right, and it is certainly one more aspect of the media's infantile view of political debate, but I wouldn't exactly call it oppression either.

[GrandmaBEE]

09:07 AM on 03/29/2010

You could also say Prez Clinton would not have gotten as far as he did if it weren't for his wife. I do agree about Sarah. I do not need the media to help me form an opinion of her. I only needed to hear her speak. Liz Cheney and Elizabeth Dole I am quite sure contributed to the success of hubby's as well. Mrs Clinton has had her own accomplishments throughout her marriage. You only speak to the "Good old boy network" and the glass ceiling women have always faced and the continued de-value of their work and contribution.

[jschmiec]

12:41 AM on 04/08/2010

i agree with everything you say. Across our society women's work is often systematically devalued and the media is part of the problem. However, in this particular case, i think the women in question actually benefited from our double standards. Again, I am not knocking Hilary Clinton, but only pointing out that her public personae benefited form her husband's success in a way that would no t likely occur the other way round. It is certainly possible that Bill was in fact aided in that success by the intelligent support of his wife, but the issue in question is how these people are portrayed publicly. It is also a little unconvincing to argue that the opponent of a black candidate was hampered by prejudice. And as you say, Palin didn't really need a lot of help appearing ridiculous. So, in both cases, I would think that there are a mountain of better examples of the serious problem of sexism in our culture. These people ultimately do a disservice to the truth by making flimsy arguments on behalf of justice.

[Bettysdad]

12:54 AM on 03/29/2010

As if male right-wing loons don't get dissected in the media.

The simple fact that Palin IS on the news shows the complete LACK of gender discrimination.

[mcmutter]

10:23 PM on 03/28/2010

No matter what Sarah does, the blank mind of the beauty queen always manages to show through .... but in the finest of all republican traditions, she can always manage to repeat another mindless slogan ....

[GrandmaBEE]

09:09 AM on 03/29/2010

And therefor and so forth you betcha!

[ChimpmasterDJ]

08:09 PM on 03/28/2010

You can't assassinate a character that doesn't exist.
She'd have to acquire character first, then we'd see...

[fabricnthreads]

08:45 PM on 03/28/2010

my sentiments, exactly