Carolyn Corallo

For the last and final Civic Issues blog post, we will be discussing the impact of the media on polarized American political culture and how much influence they hold. 

The press has always played a crucial role in keeping societies “in the know.” In the United States, the press has been responsible for informing the American people on current events whether they be global, national, or local. While always having a contentious relationship with politicians, journalists and the free press have always been seen as educators of the people, keeping those in power honest. The founding fathers considered the importance of freedom of the press to be so integral to a democratic society, that they made it one of the five freedoms of the first amendment which states:

 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

As you can see, from the founding of our country, the integrity of the press has not only been expected but firmly protected. Although various supreme court cases over our nation’s history have limited what type of language can be used, the truth brought to the public by the press has been a consistently respected and valued industry. 

The importance of the free press can be described through the trust it has built with the American public. President Teddy Roosevelt notoriously labeled journalists that uncovered scandals within the government, ‘muckrakers’ because they revealed the “muck” of harmful workplace environments and facilitated an increased public pressure on state representatives to pass laws protecting the quality of American workplaces during the Progressive Era. In the 1970s, the press was responsible for uncovering Watergate. Historically, whenever American politicians are not being truthful to the public, Americans could rely on the press to expose them and keep politicians honest. 

Today Americans are left with questions. Has the media lost the trust of the American people as the nation has become more increasingly polarized? Has modern journalism rejected presenting the truth and instead joined the corporate world of selling exaggerated stories to make a larger profit? Has the switch from paper news to television and computers played a part in political polarization? And finally, is the trust of the American people able to be retrieved over time?

The answer to these questions lies in the critical Supreme Court Case of Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Committee. In 2010, the supreme court ruled in a 5-4 vote that the federal government can not prohibit private funding of campaign ads and other forms of campaigning as it is protected under the first amendment right to free speech. One of the side effects of this decision was essentially that money became a legal equivalent to free speech, thus aiding the already polarized political climate. In turn, this created the Big Six.

The Big Six are the six major billionaire corporations that own 90% of the global media. The Big Six are AT&T, CBS, Comcast, Disney, NewsCorp, and Viacom. These six companies have bought up most of the major independent news networks we know today such as FOX, CNN, and MSNBC. This means that all major news stories essentially come from six places. With only six outlets housing nearly all of the major national media this creates an influx in disinformation. Disinformation is mainly utilized to cause a reaction in readers and or viewers to increase the chances that they return to that media source for more news. In turn, the Big Six makes more money and Americans become increasingly hostile towards one another. 

Luckily, today most Americans are aware of disinformation however they still subscribe to their media outlets of choice. For example, the majority of Republicans watch FOX news and the majority of Democrats watch CNN. For the younger generation, many people belonging to Generation Z get their news from social media such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. These apps curate specific content specific to the interests of the individual. For example a more left leaning teenager will only get content criticizing policies on the right and vice versa for a right leaning teenager. Without hearing both sides, Americans get sucked into one viewpoint. 

The other problem with modern journalism and its effect on polarization is the actual way articles are written. Previously rules to journalism included clear and concise answers to the questions who, what, where, when, and why. Previous journalists were instructed to write a story that conveyed meaning without placing biases. If they were to include biases, they were supposed to give equal airtime to both sides of the story. One way in which they did this was through quotes. That way the audience knew the source was sharing their own viewpoint and they were less persuaded to subscribe to one narrative. 

Today, the rules of journalism are much different. They are instructed to share stories that evoke emotions and sell papers, gain clicks, and views. Because of new age journalism, the news people receive diminishes trust in the free press and creates a population of skeptics, in which no one knows what news they can trust. 

Whereas the media used to serve the people, it now serves a specific political agenda to raise funds and increase viewership and subscriptions. This seems to be a common issue. When a society is polarized, the truth does not matter, being right does. When being right trumps all else, the needs of the majority are suffocated under the needs of the minority, something our founding fathers warned against and sought to protect the nation from with the first amendment. 

To conclude my civic issues blog on a more positive note, although it may seem some days like all hope is lost, culture is like a swinging pendulum, swinging from one side to the next. At some point, the pendulum will have to stop and the truth will prevail. But until that day, Americans have to hang tight and focus on what unifies us more than what divides us.

Sources:

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-9-1/ALDE_00000395/#:~:text=First%20Amendment%3A,for%20a%20redress%20of%20grievances.

https://people.howstuffworks.com/freedom-of-the-press.htm

https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Culture%20and%20Society/Muckraker

https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/citizens-united-v-fec/

The Big Six’s big media game

For this week’s civic issue blog, we will discuss whether or not the Republican and Democratic parties have stuck to their roots. Generally when discussing the history of the two party system, Americans choose to start at the very beginning with the election of Abraham Lincoln and the creation of the Republican party, however to accommodate more modern party values, we will be looking at the American political parties from the 1970s to present day. 

Generally the key differences of the Republican and Democrat parties have to do with government control and all associated social issues follow from there. Republicans are known to value limited government control with more power to the states and Democrats are known to value a larger federal government role with less power to the states. 

The 1970s were a tumultuous time in the United States. Between racial conflicts, the economic crisis, the Watergate scandal, and the end to Vietnam, the United States was incredibly divided. According to Soledad O’Brien, the 1970s were a turning point in the two party system because previously “we had forces that pushed back against the divisions in American society. So you had political institutions. The parties were much more ideologically diverse. There was a strong faith in the federal government. People thought it was working. The economy was working for people. The union movement was lifting people up and papered over some of these lines of division. The mainstream media really was a thing.” Although politicians pronounced American unity during this time, loyalty to political parties began to reign supreme due to distrust in the government. The main reason this distrust occurred was due to the Watergate scandal. After Watergate, when spies from Nixon’s campaign committee broke into the Watergate building to gather intel on Nixon’s democrat competitor, Americans no longer trusted the government. This resulted in a more individualistic form of group thought. Instead of standing unified under one American identity, Americans chose to separate more fully into Republican sides and Democrat sides, thus furthering the radicalization of the two party system we see today. 

Individual values began playing a larger role in the 1970s than in previous decades. Whereas most people in the past chose their political affiliation based on whether they supported big government or small government, the 1970s added a social values aspect. After the passage of Roe v. Wade, Democrats became the party of abortion and Republicans became the party of pro life. With the economic downturn of the oil industry, Republicans became the party of corporate America and Democrats became the party for union workers. Divides such as these began to split Americans and created more heated election cycles. 

In the 1980s with the Reagan administration, the new age Republican party was formed. Reagan ran on a platform of optimism in which his campaign ad showed, “families coming out onto their lawns, white suburban families who are very happy that everything’s fixed after a long decade.” Of course, the economy had not been fixed but this wave of hope elected Ronald Reagan to the office of the presidency. This in turn brought Republicans, who had already favored corporate America, to favored trickle-down economics and more military defense spending. With the American economic boom brought by the Reagan administration, Democrats counteracted this movement by pushing back on social welfare program cutbacks and representing unionistic values. This tactic did not prove effective until the election of Bill Clinton in the 1990s. 

For most of the Clinton administration, political ideology did not change. Republicans were still the party of Reagan and democrats were still the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Real drastic ideological political change didn’t occur until the presidential primaries leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Political parties began to associate with solely either far left or far right views which made independent voters feel out of place. This in turn caused mainstream media outlets to “promote the vote” through slander campaigns on both sides. These actions from political parties caused the presidential election of 2016 to be dubbed “voting for the lesser of two evils.” The two evils being Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady to Bill Clinton and Secretary of State under Obama, and Donald Trump, a former reality TV show host. 

So, the question now facing Americans is whether the two party system is still effective and if it’s something that is valuable to the American people. When elections become a vote for the lesser of two evils, it begs the question if it’s time to move on from party elections and go back to what George Washington wanted, which was no party system but rather the best candidate to be elected for the American people. The other question is whether the two party system needs to be reformed or if new parties need to take the lead. 

Although the Republican and Democratic parties share the same names as they were founded with, their ideologies have changed dramatically since their founding and arguably do not serve the people, but rather serve themselves. 

Another issue is with party leadership. Majority of Americans do not subscribe to strictly right or strictly left views, but rather hold an array of political beliefs and values. No, one candidate can serve the needs of every American, but if parties keep electing radical politicians, only a small minority of the population will be served while the majority will be left with unattended needs.

So, how do you think the United States political party system needs to change in order to better serve the American people? Do we need to do away with the two party system altogether? Or do we need to create a new party system that better represents the needs of the people? Make sure to comment down below and let me know what you think! Next time, for my last civic issues blog of the semester, we will be discussing the media’s role in extremist party attitudes and how it has transformed American political culture. Thank you!

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/podcasts/how-tumultuous-70s-shaped-our-political-conflicts

https://www.archives.gov/files/legislative/resources/ebooks/two-party-system.pdf

https://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Political_Parties_vrd.htm

It’s no secret that American politics has become extremely polarized in the last 15 to 20 years. Within the two party system, more and more Americans identify on the extremes of the spectrum of the Republican and Democratic parties. For my Civic Issues Blog, we will follow how the United States became polarized, whether or not the Republican and Democratic parties are still true to their roots, and how the media has contributed to already extremist party views. This week specifically will follow key events that led to the polarized political climate Americans live in today. Feel free to comment on any events you find significant to the polarized American state that I may have missed. 

We cannot discuss the roots of political polarization without talking about 9/11. Prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Republicans and Democrats shared much of the same agenda. Even though democrats supported a large federal government and the expansion of social welfare programs and republicans supported a small federal government and federal tax cuts, both parties worked together to achieve legislation that would support all Americans, not just their party constituents. According to Pew Research, in 1994 the majority of Americans considered themselves moderates in their parties, able to swing their vote based on the candidate rather than the party the candidate belonged to. 

Unfortunately, after 9/11, politics became more divisive. With the reelection of George W. Bush and American troops deployed to Afghanistan, the media began to attack the former president. Republicans came to the president’s aid while democrats further criticized the president. By 2004, polarization increased by 10% and would continue to increase to present day (Pew, 2014). 

Some effects of the polarization included racial attitudes being considered a party line debate. Many Americans held hostile attitudes toward Middle Easterners, while others sought to emphasize the necessity of helping refugees from war ridden nations such as Afghanistan. This became a huge topic of debate in the 2008 election. 

The next big event that caused polarization and extreme party ideology was the 2008 election of Barack Obama. During 2008, a stark shift in the media occurred. Liberal media outlets only wrote of their support for the president, while Republican media outlets sought to discredit the president through various stories. Part of this was due to the great recession  in which many Americans were out of work and struggling financially. Republicans sought to blame the democrat party claiming it was Obama’s fault and democrats claimed it was the republican party’s fault under the Bush administration. Americans began to take sides based on who they voted for. 

On top of the great recession of 2008, came an even greater scandal that divided the country: the Benghazi terrorist attacks of 2012. In Benghazi, Libya, four Americans were murdered at the hands of Al Qaeda. This great tragedy was mourned by Americans all around, but unlike 9/11, instead of solely blaming terrorists, Americans began to blame various political parties. Because democrats controlled the presidency, democrats came to the support of the president and secretary of state stating that they held no responsibility in the attacks. Republicans on the other hand, claimed that the Obama administration needed to be investigated because they had allegedly received intel about the upcoming attack. 

According to Pew Research, by 2014, 20% of Americans subscribed to strict party values. Republicans and democrats were split fairly evenly of the 20%.  In 2019, Facing History reported that 45% of democrats said they would be upset if their child married a republican and 35% of republicans said they would be upset if their child married a democrat. This starkly contrasted Americans in 1994 who reported that 4% of republicans and democrats would be upset if their child married someone from the opposing party. In just 20 years, Americans separated their identity from one American one to either conservative or liberal. 

The final straw in dividing the nation was the 2016 presidential election in which democrat Hillary Clinton faced republican Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was elected, Americans were shocked to say the least. Donald Trump, a reality TV show celebrity, had won the office of the presidency, and liberals were not happy. His administration brought loads of controversy with two impeachments, one insurrection, a pandemic, and multiple protests. Over four years, Americans reached a point of no return. Politicians refused to work across the aisle to pass legislation and relied on midterm elections to oust the opposing party. Furthermore, the nation was completely divided as Americans refused to associate with people from another political party. Instead of honoring the famous rule not discussing politics and religion, politics and religion became a key topic of conversation. Stereotypes were built around the labeling of ‘Republican’ and ‘Democrat’ and caused a rift in American culture and values. 

Negative agendas were most prominent in 2020 in which a global pandemic was weaponized as a mode of vote grabbing. Politicians used stances such as pro-mask or anti-vax to further divide the nation. Politicians deemed the 2020 election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, “a fight for the soul of America.” Everyone’s emotions were so heightened due to false pretenses regarding the opposing party. 

I can still remember the 2020 election. Friendships at my school ended over political beliefs. Virtue signaling was everywhere with political affiliation pins clearly labeling who voted for who. People became very nosy about who was vaccinated and who wasn’t. Teachers in school would talk about the polarization in the United States and discuss how different it was from when they were growing up. The shift from moderate political ideologies under the banner of a two party system has now become two divided Americas, unified in hatred and disdain for the opposition.

Next week, as I dive further in the Civic Issue of political polarization in the United States, I will discuss the founding values of each political party and discuss whether or not either party has held true to their values and to the service of the American people. Again, feel free to comment your opinions on political polarization and whether or not you think the events I listed have contributed. 

Sources:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/political-polarization-united-states

https://www.britannica.com/place/Benghazi