Balance of Powers: How TV and Social Media Tip the Scales in Favor of Imperial Presidency Over the People

Televised news and social media will always put the president over the people

Although it gives the appearance of letting “the people” be directly heard, social media and television make it more difficult for legitimate complaints to reach the desks of politicians.  This is because television newscasters and social media observers implicitly support the imperial presidency over the people.

A perverse incentive for media companies to make this so.  

The constant quest to drive ratings leads media companies to search for a focal point that can both alienate and inspire competing demographics.  

This focal point is the President of the United States.

The centrality and unitary position of the President allows whomever is serving to serve as the unofficial figurehead and/or anti-hero for big media.  And as long as whomever is serving continues to make themselves available to big media this will always be the case -- big media wants people to fetishize presidential coverage because it makes it easy for them to tell simple and inflammatory stories to drive ratings.  

This is why big media will always insist on putting the president over the people.

And this implicit preference is making the office of the president into an unofficial media monarchy.  As a result presidents have no problem unleashing their dictatorial impulses by “legislating” through executive order.  Every time a president does so they gain more attention and exposure driving their endless appetite for screen time, retweets, and soon thereafter campaign donations.

To stop this threatening madness the solution is simple: to encourage all Presidents to stay off our screens and spend more time working behind the scenes.  After all it is the president’s job to work for the states -- not CNN or Fox News.  Maybe one day presidents will realize this and sign out of the media madness they create and back into the political reality of their official office.

Zigmund Reichenbach holds a M.A. in Philosophy from West Chester University.  You can occasionally find him covering news stories of national interest at Real News or you can follow him on Twitter @zreichenbach1.  To support the creation of articles like these visit the RootsRSNG’s Patreon. 

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