Sound and Unsound Bytes

In 1991 Duluth MN experienced a four day blizzard that literally buried the city in snow. The Halloween Blizzard, as it came to be known, dropped nearly four feet of powder on our Northland city-on-a-hillside, blanketing cars and everything else. With the mayoral election just days away, it became an amusing spectacle to see even the weather used as a political issue.

Once the snow finally ceased, the city began the challenging process of digging itself out. I lived in the Central Hillside at the time, and decided to take a walk around our neighborhood on the first illustriously sunny day after the four day blow.

It was probably Sunday morning. I had walked down the hillside to Fourth Street and headed east. There were no cleared roads except the snow emergency routes, which are maintained in all circumstances.

When I got to the corner of Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue East, I was somewhat surprised to see three people tromping through the snow up the middle of the road from below. It was a news camera from Channel 3 TV, along with mayoral candidate Gary Doty and his handler. I was the only person in sight, and so they walked up to me. I greeted them. They were looking for people in cars who were stuck and needing help getting pushed out of the drifted snow. Mayor Doty had makeup on his face for the sake of the camera to help reduce the glare of the sun on his shiny white skin. In other words, it was a staged event

Did I get a warm fuzzy from seeing the mayor-elect pushing cars out of snowbanks? Truth is, it left me feeling weird. What I do not understand is how they think people don’t see through this kind of bogus “compassion.” They (the people orchestrating media, political candidate and news byte) were looking to capture images for the evening news, to show that Mr. Doty cared about people.

It brought to mind my short term involvement in politics in 1984. I was at a Republican district meeting where they were seeking volunteers to show up on a Saturday morning to paint a house for an 87 year old woman in St. Paul. The media would be there to cover the (staged) event. I asked the question, “If our (Republican) policies help the poor and needy, why don’t we explain HOW our platform is better for everyone than the Democratic platform.” The facial expressions essentially dismissed my remarks as impertinent. The sound byte was more important than explanations. Besides, they had already made arrangements with the TV news directors. It would make a good story.

Sadly, what is important is not truth, not rationale, but the sound byte. Manipulation based on the assumption that people are too stupid to see through the crap they are told to swallow.

This submission to the PR “experts” was the nail in the coffin for the Dukakis campaign in the 1980’s when he allowed himself to be filmed riding a tank… in an effort to show he was pro-military. Stupid. The real message is, “You are not a leader. You listen to your idiot PR experts instead of following your own gut based on experience, observation, expertise.” (I can't believe Michael Dukakis thought of his bungled byte all by himself... when he road in a tank to show he was pro-military. It was his handlers, right?)

I like Gary Doty as a person, but politically, that day in November a few days before the election was too fakey for me and a symbol of at least one thing wrong with America today.

And why do the journalists go along with it? I thought the media was supposed to be a watchdog that informs, not a tool in the hands of power seeking orchestra conductors.

From where I sit, things are not getting better any time soon. A lot of our leaders are themselves only pawns in a game.