Sometimes the media does some pretty gross stuff. They’ll present stories (whether fiction or non-fiction) that are full of bias or presented in a biased way, they’ll promote negative stereotypes or narratives that falsely support an incorrect view, or any number of other misuses of their various platforms.
This is bad! And you’re wrong to expect better.
Look, “the media” isn’t some noble society of monks whose job is to promote truth and virtue. “The media” is a collection of companies whose only job is to sell people stuff. If they promote bias, it’s for the same reason that a burger joint makes burgers – because the customers want burgers.
Media is downstream from culture, not the other way around. If you don’t like burgers, then don’t eat them – but more importantly, if you don’t like burgers, then you need to recognize that the burger joints and the commercials for the burger joints aren’t for you. You won’t get them to stop selling burgers just by pointing out that you find burgers to be gross. If you don’t like burgers, then they don’t care about you, because you aren’t their customer.
It’s the same with the media. In 2016, the Chicago Tribune tweeted out: “Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins bronze medal today in Rio Olympics.” People were salty because the athlete, Corey Cogdell-Unrein, wasn’t even named. That’s gross, and it sucks! It’s super terrible! I’m not saying it’s not. I’m just saying that you’re wrong to expect better.
The Chicago Tribune did a simple calculation: “Do we have more Bears fans as readers, or people who care who Corey Cogdell-Unrein is?” And then they tweeted accordingly. And they’re not going to do anything different.
People who like burgers make money for burger joints. People who don’t like burgers don’t take money away. That’s the important thing to remember, here.
Stop looking to “the media” for your good behavior – you’ll never find it there. If you want virtue, it will – it must – always come from your own communities. You can hold your own community to a virtuous standard, because you can hold yourself to a virtuous standard. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have a “community” that includes news and movie studios that you’ll never visit staffed by people who you’ll never meet, and whose job is to sell garbage to the people who want to buy garbage.
Build a virtuous community by first caring about people who care about you. And waste no time paying attention to the behavior of people who don’t.
The Opportunity Machine 