When News Media Becomes Demagoguery
In today’s world, there is a constant flow of new information being presented through media outlets. All day every day, there is an endless cycle of consumption by not only the American people, but consumers on a global scale as well. As a society, we want to trust our news sources; we want to believe that the information being presented to us is unbiased and undeniably factual. However, in a modern world, it seems as though the news media has become a weapon, designed to discredit opposing ideologies and confirm internal biases. Mass media outlets have shifted their focus from presenting the cold hard facts, to twisting the narrative in order to support personal beliefs and values. Rhetorical manipulation has allowed this spread of information to become demagoguery in its truest form.
The American people are firmly divided when it comes to their beliefs regarding the well-being of the country. This strict binary between conservative versus liberal ideas allows for political tension to take place in the media, and further perpetuate these conflicts among the American people. According to the research of the author and journalist David Baron, “competition can result in more biased news” (Baron 3). To further explain, because both liberal and conservative networks fight against each other for views and popularity among their audiences, it creates a competitive nature between these respective news stations. Not only this, but Baron also states that, “news media bias thus affects both the content of the stories and which stories are reported” (Baron 2.) As a result, journalists may twist select areas of the truth, make certain information appear more dramatic, or at times fully fabricate information to make it seem more appealing to the public. This competitive nature between news stations is clearly visible in the media we consume today. For further insight, I examined the dichotomy between the coverage of a conservative journalist, Sean Hannity, and a liberal journalist, Rachel Maddow.
Sean Hannity is a conservative, right-wing journalist who is a vital component of the Fox News network. During one of his recent shows, he presented his stance on the status of our current global pandemic. From Hannity’s point of view, the presidential administration has done an adequate job in handling this pandemic as quickly and efficiently as possible. He states that we have a sufficient amount of ventilators for Covid-19 patients who need them, as well as 10,000 spare ventilators if conditions worsen. Along with this, Hannity claims that the US has millions of N95 masks and that, overall, the curve regarding coronavirus cases in the United States is flattening (Hannity 2020).
He attributes almost all of this success to the efforts being put forth by the Trump Administration. He strongly believes that Trump’s actions, such as enacting travel bans early on, were bold and necessary for the safety of this country. While many on the left believe this ban had nothing to do with the coronavirus, and everything to do with xenophobic prejudice, Hannity simply states that, “the president had the foresight, the courage, [and] the wisdom to do something no other president has done” (Hannity 2020). Along with praising Trump, Hannity is also denouncing the left side of the political spectrum during his news segment.
During most of the program, Hannity takes a considerable amount of time to contradict democratic news outlets. He states that, despite all the positive new information about Covid-19, there is a “level of fear, hysteria, [and] panic among many on the left” (Hannity 2020). His argument is founded in the belief that the left side is overreacting about Covid-19, as well as perpetuating unnecessary fear among the American people. He claims that they overlook everything President Trump has achieved because if Trump wins, the left fails. As a result, he states that these democratic news sources spread misinformation in order to maintain the image that Trump is immoral and wrong. According to Hannity, “they spread endless lies and conspiracy theories” in order to sustain this goal (Hannity 2020). This confrontation of the opposing side is nothing new in the media realm. In fact, democratic news outlets use these same denouncing techniques against conservative media as well.
On MSNBC, host and liberal journalist Rachel Maddow also discusses her input on the coronavirus pandemic. First and foremost, she spends a lot of time interviewing nurses and doctors in order to relay their first hand experiences and knowledge to the public. This, in particular, reassures the audience that this information is coming from a primary, factual source, which is something Hannity lacked in his screen time. Moreover, Maddow discusses how recent regulations such as the “stay-at-home order” has benefitted the general public by flattening the curve in certain areas. Additionally, she notes that the majority of the population agrees with the stay at home order and wants to keep it intact for as long as necessary (Maddow 2020).
That being said, Maddow also discusses the other side of the spectrum, in which people are protesting these regulations because they want their lives to go back to normal. Visibly frustrated, she also mentions the recent actions of the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and his decision to reopen the state already. From her informational standpoint, this is a detrimental mistake, most notably because the number of coronavirus cases in Georgia is only increasing. Not only this, but according to her information, Georgia has only tested about 1% of their population, so it’s impossible to know how many cases there actually are at the present moment. Something interesting to note is that she associates these actions by Kemp and the protestors in various states with right wing ideologies. She specifically mentions that Kemp is a Republican and that most of the protestors are pro-Trump (Maddow 2020). Clearly, she thinks these actions are senseless and wrong, so associating them with her opposing political party infers that they are doing these things because they follow the advice of Trump, someone she clearly does not respect.
Alongside the subtle contempt, she also blatantly states that there is, “ignorance among our nation’s leaders” (Maddow 2020). To interpret, she is discussing Trump’s recent statement about injecting disinfectant in order to cure the coronavirus, something that he claims was a joke, but is still up for speculation. Additionally, she slanders Vice President Mike Pence for stating that the coronavirus will be far behind us by Memorial Weekend without any medical expertise to back those statements up. Finally, she criticizes Brian Kemp and the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, for just recently realizing that asymptomatic people can still be carriers of the coronavirus and infect others, something medical officials have known for quite some time now (Maddow 2020).
Overall, throughout both Sean Hannity’s and Rachel Maddow’s episodes, they both spent a significant amount of time trying to derail the other side. They make it a point to question the other’s intelligence and attack their credibility, all while boosting their own for personal gain. From an outside perspective, one can see that media coverage has adapted a competitive nature; it is more about being right than it is about presenting information to the public. In this way, the news media has essentially become a puppet for demagogic rhetoric.
In theory, the United States is founded in democracy, an institution in which civil deliberation among opposing sides is conducted in order to reach a mutually beneficial conclusion for the good of the country. While this structure is the intent, democracy has become warped into something much more chaotic and destructive, a phenomena known as demagoguery. Demagoguery is characterized by a structure of institutionalized binaries: us versus them, conservative versus liberal, good versus bad. Through this mentality, the demagogic discourse follows, in which one side will manipulate rhetoric in order to make themselves appear superior to the other side.
According to Patricia Roberts-Miller, “demagoguery works when (and because) we don’t recognize it as such” (23). Due to the fact that this rhetoric has become so embedded in our society, it is difficult to identify it, and therefore stop it. In this nation especially, people are adamant about their political standing, and there is a consistent dichotomy between one side and the other. In the eyes of demagoguery, “they are the problem; we are essentially better, and they are essentially evil” (Roberts-Miller 20). This mentality is clearly displayed in the news media which was previously presented. Both Hannity and Maddow claim the other as the perpetrator in this situation, and virtually in all situations. This is apparent in the audience as well. Religiously following only one side of the news allows viewers to become encapsulated within their own biases, where their ideas are constantly being validated instead of challenged. In this way, the corruptness of ‘democracy’ thrives, as we the people are blind to our own perpetuation of demagoguery in the modern world.
Since people are so fixed in their views, it creates an uneasiness when attempting to abandon biases and gain a broader perspective. This is exactly how demagoguery maintains its foothold in society. It sustains itself on adherence– one must stay loyal to their respective in-group while simultaneously denouncing the out-group. This mentality convinces us that we do not need to look into other sources to validate our beliefs; we already know what they think, so why waste our time? (Roberts-Miller 91). Additionally, venturing outside of this norm in which we have gotten so familiar with seems terrifying because we do not want to be wrong. In this way, “many people prefer a comfortable lie to an uncomfortable truth” (Roberts-Miller 97). We continue to watch the media that validates our pre-existing beliefs about how the world should work, even though these news outlets may be feeding us biased and, at times, blatantly incorrect information.
Overall, demagoguery has worked its way into almost every rhetorical aspect of our society. It has become so embedded within our speech and conversational patterns, that we often are unaware it’s happening. The media continues to perpetuate this rhetoric in hopes to gain audiences, cater to our personal beliefs, and validate their own in the process. The media and its internal biases can no longer be fully trusted for non-partisan information. We must be able to identify and disengage with this demagoguery in order to reveal the full truth.
Works Cited
Baron, David P. “Persistent Media Bias.” SSRN Electronic Journal, vol. 90, no. 1-2, 2006, pp. 1–36. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272705000216
Hannity, Sean. Fox News, 13 Apr. 2020.
Maddow, Rachel. “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, 28 Apr. 2020.
Roberts-Miller, Patricia. Demagoguery and Democracy. Experiment LLC, 2020.