- A Brilliant Idea for your pets
- A very bad memory
- Doesn't anyone remember there's a war?
- Much Much More?
I know that you all know I'm often kind of lost in my own little world, really the whole show stems from that curious quirk, but I've had reason to question if I'm not a little too far off the beaten path lately.
It started with a political email about the sexism inherent in the coverage of Hilary Clinton crying. I hadn't actually heard about her crying but I wrote back a slightly snarky response that I'm sure if any of the other candidates resorted to crying we'd be making fun of them as well. We still make fun of a few sports figures who cried in press conferences and not because of their gender.
But when I mentioned this to a friend she pointed out that A. Hilary Clinton actually hadn't cried so much as was a little choked up and B. it was being covered EVERYWHERE that she was a big crybaby. This friend also mentioned that she thought Willard Mitt Romney had actually cried in the campaign and no big deal was made of it.
I still haven't heard anyone make fun of her for doing anything she didn't do. I'm not saying that they aren't making fun of her in an unfair or sexist way, they probably are, all I'm saying is I never saw it.
Another friend (this does get to a point eventually if you'll just bear with me a moment longer) posted on a blog a mean entry about 2008 predictions and how all the people making them are just pulling them out of their ass and that's about how much they're worth. I had the same response to that as I had the Clinton thing, I hadn't seen anything like that.
And then it struck me, I'm not what most people would call uninformed I don't think, especially about politics and the campaign and yet somehow I'm missing an awful lot of the "mainstream" coverage. For a moment I doubted my own connection to reality but after thinking a bit I think the very fact that I'm ignorant of these media moments is a good thing and in fact indicative of an ethos I have that serves me well and perhaps could you.
Rather than rail against "the media" for covering politics in a skewed and biased way, I apparently just don't watch or listen to that kind of media. I don't think I can change the media. I don't think that letter writing or blogging or complaining is going to make a damned bit of difference and even if it could, it's asking someone else to change to suit my tastes.
If you don't like "the media" don't take it in. Change your own habits. There are plenty of ways to keep yourself informed, plenty of media outlets (albeit mostly new media) that aren't doing these things that are apparently so egregious. It's much easier to do that than to make others change. Of course if everyone did as I do, the mainstream would change because the other way wouldn't be marketable.
Yes, I did essentially just make an Adam Smith's Invisible Hand kind of analogy to media and life in general but it really works out pretty well. Don't buy from people who put out a product you don't like hoping they'll change for you. Buy the product you really do like. If it doesn't exist, make it. If others feel as you do, they'll buy your product instead of the other thing.
I guess that's where the Oddcast comes from; the need to make the kind of show I'd like to listen to.
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