My classmate, Summer Stewart recently
posted an article “Presidents
in the Visual Media” which focuses on the negative effects surrounding
presidential candidates using entertainment media to gain support. Having
presidential candidates gain support and win elections through their entertaining
abilities isn’t by any means a new political strategy. As Stewart discusses in
her post how John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon through effective use of
air time on the television to gain mass public support. It’s an issue that needs
to be addressed because future presidents whomever they may be need to be great
leaders not solely “charming”.
Stewart goes into detail about recent candidates trying to
get as much air time on shows such as Saturday Night Live. The public should be
offended that candidates are trying to gain support through these specific
outlooks of entertainment. Ironically enough the shows these candidates make an
appearance in an attempt to get their “message” across happen to be mainly
comprised of comedy and satire news shows. Candidates have also been making a
lot of appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and
others. Just like their debates they only pick-at and make jokes at their
competitors rather than actually conveying their aims and goals of their proposed
administration in depth.
Stewart’s choice to quote Nixon over his race against
Kennedy is very fitting: “It is a devastating commentary on the nature of
television as a political medium that what hurt me the most in the first debate
was not the substance of the encounter between Kennedy and me, but the
disadvantageous contrast in our physical appearances.” However to further this
it’s not just appearance that goes a long way, after all Trump has gained much
attention through media through only the absurdities he says. Trump’s recent
and most well-known bigoted remarks towards Latinos, “They’re bringing drugs.
They’re bringing crime, They’re rapists.” A candidates ranking in the polls
should have no correlation to abhorrent and false statements such as these, but
it unfortunately shows.
I strongly agree with Stewart’s stance of being against candidates
swaying the public to favor and support them through erroneous and fictitious appeal
vicariously through our entertainment. It creates bias that isn’t based on
facts of the candidate and their party. Sure it can be entertaining but it
shouldn’t become the source of attention for politics. However it can be funny
as when Colbert pokes at Trump once again on the recent video Time just released a of a bald eagle attacking
Donald Trump back in August, which is not just comical but almost truthfully symbolic
in how the United States feels towards Trump.
