*Note: The Big Picture has been re-publishing Bob Lefsetz’s work for over 20 years(!). His perspecitve is always insightful and unvarnished. This is Bob’s take on Tuesday’s election results… *
The story for me is how out of touch the press is.
The right said Trump had a mandate.
The left said the party had to run to the center.
And everybody in the pundit class, everybody in D.C., seemed to have no understanding of the mindset of the people. And the question arises, if the press is wrong on this, what else are they wrong on?
If you’ve made it all the way to TV or Congress, you’re pretty self-impressed; you ran the gauntlet and emerged victorious. But did you know that the median age of an MSNBC viewer is …
*Note: The Big Picture has been re-publishing Bob Lefsetz’s work for over 20 years(!). His perspecitve is always insightful and unvarnished. This is Bob’s take on Tuesday’s election results… *
The story for me is how out of touch the press is.
The right said Trump had a mandate.
The left said the party had to run to the center.
And everybody in the pundit class, everybody in D.C., seemed to have no understanding of the mindset of the people. And the question arises, if the press is wrong on this, what else are they wrong on?
If you’ve made it all the way to TV or Congress, you’re pretty self-impressed; you ran the gauntlet and emerged victorious. But did you know that the median age of an MSNBC viewer is 72? This isn’t even your parents, this is your GRANDPARENTS! And this is my generation, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s as baked into its ways as the generations before it. We thought it would be different for boomers, after all, they had the greatest number of people and changed the world, but not anymore.
The world runs on tech and the internet, yet Andrew Cuomo spent double-digit millions on TV ads. Do you know anybody under thirty who watches traditional television, whether it be network or cable? Most don’t even have access, and they don’t care. If there’s a show worth seeing, and there are very few, it’s on a streaming outlet. As for the news, it’s at your fingertips online! As for the cable channels themselves, good luck finding one that has in excess of a million viewers, in a country of 340 million; a lot of these outlets don’t even have 100,000 people watching at one time. But because they’re part of the cable package old schoolers think they count, when they don’t. YouTube and TikTok count much more.
After the last election cycle, AOC told the Democratic Party to give her their campaign funds, that she knew how to spend them, unlike the establishment. She was talking about online… And two years later it’s even clearer. It’s nearly impossible to reach anybody, and if you want to make contact at all, you’ve got to do so online.
And if it’s not reported on Fox or in the “New York Times,” that does not mean it does not matter. Those outlets are still operating on the old paradigm of if they don’t report it, it doesn’t exist. We no longer need the imprimatur of an authority for a story to have legs; it can spread like wildfire without even making it to the so-called mainstream.
Sure, Mamdani had innovative policies that spoke to the issue of affordability, but his roots were planted online, with limited merch and gamification, and…until the primary last June, the mainstream had no idea of the size of his following. It’s about getting people excited with honesty and credibility, such that they will spread the word. Your only hope is virality. I don’t mean going nuclear, although that’s great, but engendering any word of mouth at all. If people don’t want to talk about you and what you’re doing, you’re dead in the water. The days of a media outlet shoving something down the audience’s throat to the point of success are done. Gatekeepers are history. You go directly to the audience. It’s a whole new ball game, one oldsters are not prepared to play, never mind that they don’t want to believe change has happened, and they’re out of date.
As for affordability… That’s all I heard on the cable channels today, both MSNBC and Fox. As if this were a revelation. Been to a grocery store recently? That’s all you’ve got to know. But if you’ve got enough money not to look at the receipt…you’re one of the chosen few, the masses are positively stupefied. Sure, inflation has calmed down, but grocery prices keep going up, it’s harder to make ends meet, and all we’re getting from both parties is platitudes, which the consumer can’t understand and don’t move the needle anyway.
D.C. is the land of no. Not only is there gridlock, no one wants any innovative legislation or action; they don’t want to take a risk. They believe in the status quo. But out in the hinterlands, the status quo went out the window long ago. Furthermore, change keeps happening, faster than ever. You might not be able to keep up, deciding you want to turn off the smartphone and see people face to face, but that just means you’re missing out, you’re losing touch with the pulse of the nation. What are the odds you’re hanging with those who have opposite opinions anyway?
As for the last election…
Can the Democrats just admit they f*cked it up? That Biden was too old and hung on too long, and the only people who wanted Harris anointed without a primary were Joe and Kamala herself? Democrats felt ripped off. They may hate the Democratic party, deservedly, but that does not mean they’ve given up on Democratic VALUES!
Immigration was a problem that the Democrats didn’t adequately address. The educated know that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than citizens and they oftentimes do jobs citizens are unwilling to do. But that doesn’t speak to the UNFAIRNESS! The public is sick and tired of the rules being bent for everyone but them; they’re saying NO MAS! Which is part of what they said yesterday.
The media underestimated Trump’s power, his acolytes, his total vote in 2024 and they underestimated the margins of victory of Democrats yesterday. They’ve got their heads so far up their asses that they can’t see the truth, never mind that horse races get good ratings and they don’t like perceived in advance blowouts…who’s going to tune in for that?
Meanwhile, the right-wing media machine convinced Democrats that they should operate on the back foot, play defense, and that the Republicans were in charge of the agenda.
No one likes taxes. But people hate income inequality even more. And Trump is busy giving the rich breaks, never mind all the corporate titans coming to kiss the ring. As if one corporate titan equals a hundred thousand votes. These CEOs are no longer adored, they’re seen as whores ripping off the nation…and if you think they’re in touch with the nation… Zuckerberg may control Facebook, but that does not mean he’s knowledgeable about the conversation on his platform. Never mind everybody knowing the algorithm is f*cked, and showing you inflammatory stuff to keep you on. The public is not as stupid as you think.
But not everybody is informed. More people know more than ever before, as a result of the internet, but most people don’t get in the weeds; they vote on personality, on broad issues. But Biden and his ilk were wonks. Just make my life easy enough so I don’t have to think about you, so I can live my life without worrying about what is happening in government…that’s what people want.
So the lunatics have lost touch with the asylum. Yes, the elected officials, the government industrial complex, and the media enthralled to it. Want to know what is going on in America? You must be online hours a day, like youngsters. And if you decry this, you’re as out of touch as your parents, who hated the Beatles.
Can an aged congressperson play a video game, do they even know the names of them? Video games are bigger than movies, but all we’ve got is all this press about films whose grosses are declining.
I’d say it’s a disinformation campaign, but it’s really a misinformation campaign; reporters have no idea what is really going on! One fat cat opinion writer after another sits on his or her high horse and tells you what’s going on because they spoke with insiders…how about speaking with OUTSIDERS, you’d learn more, know what is going on more!
Then there’s this story:
“There are no hip-hop songs in the US top 40 for the first time since 1990”
Now the “Billboard” chart itself is flawed, but we’re constantly told we live in a hip-hop nation, that rap rules. But it hasn’t meant this little in thirty-five years!
Just like the press tells us all about the antics of Taylor Swift, when the truth is most people just aren’t listening to her and just don’t care. And they’re listening to nobody more, except maybe Morgan Wallen, but this narrative doesn’t fit with the media’s agenda… The music scene today is more steel wool than clear windowpane. It’s messy, hard to decipher…but they keep anointing the past.
As for the new…
The media completely missed Zach Bryan on his way up.
So you have two choices. Either keep your head in the sand, believe in everything you were into previously, refuse to question your preconceptions, or…dive in knowing there are no clear answers, but he or she with the most information has the best understanding of what is happening in America, however flawed their viewpoint might still be.
I’m not saying to expect free and fair elections in the future, I’m not saying Trump’s march towards authoritarianism won’t proceed, but to think that the public is asleep and/or okay with the trajectory of our nation is just plain wrong. The public has been taking it up the a*s since the eighties, when tax rates were lowered and boomers became greedy. And they’ve been punched in the face multiple times thereafter, especially in 2008. People are both angry and disillusioned. They don’t care which party it is; neither is in touch with their feelings. Some will vote so the other won’t get power, but most people no longer believe in government, have no hope, in a completely changed world.
It’s not very complicated. The evidence is in plain sight. All you’ve got to do is connect with the great unwashed, whom the rich and those in power have contempt for. People believe in America, just not this America, they want CHANGE!
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Originally published by Bob Lefsetz at the Leftsetz Letter