Creating reality

For decades schools of journalism have kicked around Marshall McLuhan’s theory, “The medium is the message.”

Over the last few months, we have seen the medium of cable news doing what it does best: creating reality.

On 25 May 2007, my post, “The silence is deafening” (LINK) concerned “the new silent majority.” The premise of the post was: the MAJORITY of Americans do not have a voice in the media.

As an example, I noted that major polls, taken during the Senate debate on “immigration reform,” showed 60 to 80 percent of Americans support “a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.”

MSNBC had Pat Buchanan on ‘round-the-clock, almost every program, stating that “the overwhelming majority of Americans do NOT support amnesty for illegal aliens.” Pat tends to throw out a lot of unsupported statistics.

Of course, Lou Dobbs was doing his nightly thing on CNN.

Between the two of them they started a cable news drumbeat – you know, reporting “there is a great public outcry” - that developed a MYTH exactly the opposite of what major polls were showing.

Let’s take a look at what Americans were saying at the time:

CNN ARTICLE, 24 MAY 2007 ON POLL RESULTS FROM MAY 4-6, 2007, 80 PERCENT FAVOR PATH TO CITIZENSHIP (LINK):

“The same thing is true for illegal immigration. A solid majority of Americans favor allowing illegal immigrants who have been living in the United States for a number of years to stay and apply for citizenship if they have a job and pay back taxes. Critics call that ‘amnesty.’ ”

CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS REPORT ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: LINK

USA TODAY/GALLUP POLL ARTICLE, APRIL 2007, 78 PERCENT FAVOR PATH TO CITIZENSHIP: LINK

ALSO, FROM THE USA TODAY/GALLUP POLL, MARCH 2007 (LINK):

“These sentiments were captured in an early March Gallup poll, which asked: ‘Which comes closest to your view about what government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States? Should the government deport all illegal immigrants back to their home country, allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States in order to work but only for a limited amount of time, or allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time?’

“Fifty-nine percent think illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain in the U.S. and possibly become citizens if they meet ‘certain requirements,’ while 15 percent favor allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. for a limited time, and 24 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be deported.”

Fast forward: a “google” search shows most recent polls on this issue are yielding the same results.

On 2 November 2007, in an article following the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, the Washington Post reported (LINK):

“Polls suggest that most Americans want to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country and create ways for them to obtain citizenship, but party strategists say the voters who care most about this issue are those angry about illegal immigration and want to hear a tougher message.”

So, America’s “new silent majority” is being drowned out by an angry 20 percent and two numbnuts with microphones.