Spreading Media--Not Democracy

While our government may not be meeting its quarterly goals of spreading democracy around the world, we are doing a helleva job spreading our media values to non-democracies, sometimes called totalitariats. And that just may be the way to enhance our real influence and power in the world.

Not too long ago, you may have seen Pakistan President-cum-Generalisimo, Pervez Musharraf doing our talk show circuit, hawking his book, doing banter with the likes of Jon Stewart. Slick, very slick. He clearly watches Oprah.

Now we have The VladMan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, doing an American version of a media-riffic political campaign. He's jailed his opponent in the upcoming event he calls an election, sometimes called a stacked deck. But this has not stopped The VladMan from launching one of our media-glitz campaigns designed to wow and woo a thumbs-up vote on his referendum of leadership. His rallies feature driving music, laser lights, giant screens with The VladMan looking cool in a jacket and - was that a turtle-neck? It's practically a Stones Concert. He's also doing sweater-wearing staged events, surrounded by fresh-faced folks, against a TV backdrop of raised campaign words repeated endlessly so they're always in the camera shot. Thank you, Roger Ailes.

So, scrap the spreading democracy campaign - it doesn't seem to be working anyway. But imposing our TV values around the Middle East, now we maybe on to something. In addition to spreading shows like Sex in the City throughout Mesopotamia, what about The Apprentice Taliban Edition where 'your fired' could literally be flames consuming the errant male-only contestant? Oh, and the breaks could be populated with gyrating, bust-busting Victori's Secret commercials. A few seasons of these kind of TV values and any non-democratized society would start to decay and wither. That's real American influence and power.

Comments

[northridge]

Post-fairness doctrince, it's more about economics, as in "owning the means of production." Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch own the means of production, well, at least some of them. DayStar owns others, and GE, Disney, et al.. Hence, we get O'Reilly, O'Hannity, O'Limbaugh, O'700 Club. Good God, journalism ain't what it used to be. Now what?

[3fingerbrown]

Hasn't it always been that way?
U.S. pop culture has been our leading export since we invented it. American blackface minstrel troupes were playing to standing-room crowds in London as early as the mid-1800s, and minstrelsy became popular in such unlikely places as Japan in the wake of Perry's voyage.
Since then we've given the world Coca-Cola, rock 'n' roll, blue jeans, car-chase movies, "I Love Lucy," McDonald's, Marlboros--and they love it. And why not? We do popular culture better than any civilization has ever done before.
Louis Armstrong, Elvis, and Bruce Springsteen have won more friends for America worldwide than all the billion-dollar democratization programs combined.
When I see TV interviews with victims of our political and economic imperialism in foreign countries, they'll so often say something like, "We love America, but not its government." What they're really saying is "Give us hip-hop, give us 'Dancing with the Stars,' give us Yankees baseball caps, but stop telling us how to run our country."

[jeskiley]

I'd say allowing totalitariats to parade their regimes before us via boob tube might be good medicine, if the followup commentary sufficiently hazed and roasted him. That could be deadly though. Never fear, with reality tv stardom becoming the most hoped for profession among our young today, it won't be long before we sabotage our democracy anyway. Blinded by the glitter, and a media that economizes Ed, Edd, and Eddy, but not School House Rock. One generation later, we think everyone desrves a voice, a stage is an equal right, isn't it? It's written somewhere in one of those documents and my teacher wasn't allowed to tell us differently.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Propaganda:
Pronunciation: ˌprä-p�"-ˈgan-d�", ˌprō-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Congregatio de propaganda fide Congregation for propagating the faith, organization established by Pope Gregory XV died 1623
Date: 1718
1capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions
2: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
3: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect

That's pretty much all I have to say about it, other than:
http://www.impeachbush.org