CSotD: Communications Breakdown

Eric Allie (Counterpoint) offers a sort of “I know you are, but what am I?” analysis of Cancel Culture, in which, he contends, liberal attempts to control disinformation have become an attack on free speech.

There is, obviously, no lack of Cancel Culture happening at the moment, and not just Ron DeSantis limiting the ability of Florida teachers to cover American history or to provide students with books that, for instance, suggest that Roberto Clemente faced racism in his career.

But, as reported in Reliable Sources, DirectTV’s decision to drop Newsmax rather than pay millions in new fees to carry a service few people watch has been transformed into a rightwing Cancel Culture case, and the Central Committee will be holding hearings to investigate a case of private industry not following Politburo dictates. Or something like that.

Admittedly, it’s not only a case of communist control of private industry: Reliable Sources newsletter also links to a NYTimes report that YouTube has laid off all but one of its staff in charge of policing disinformation on the site.

Who needs government dictates when private industry doesn’t care anyway?

Though, by golly, Elon Musk cares, and when nobody was responding to his tweets, he demanded that his engineers set up a special algorithm for his own tweets to make them go to all Twitter users.

Except the ones like me who have blocked him.

To be fair, Chip Bok (Creators) makes a reasonable point that President Biden has not made a specific comment about the derailment and toxic fire in Ohio. Granted, his championing of Amtrak has included funding to improve the aging tracks, bridges and tunnels of the country’s rail system, and the topic of the accident was covered in the latest press briefing.

It’s not as if the White House is ignoring the issue.

But, as noted in a recent Bulwark podcast, Biden’s successes have gone largely unmarked by voters because he has not been an effective communicator. Charlie Sykes and Will Saletan pointed out that other presidents such as Bill Clinton and FDR have held frequent press conferences and made direct addresses to the American people, while Biden has apparently hoped his deeds would speak for him.

At the TV station where I worked decades ago, the promotions director had a sign over his desk that said, “A terrible thing happens when you don’t promote: Nothing.”

True words, and Biden’s failure to hold fireside chats — trivial as that might seem — opens him up to attacks like Bok’s, and to poor polling results from a public that hasn’t heard from him.

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Marty Two Bulls — AMS)

(Gary McCoy)

Two views of the same event, and they could hardly be more divergent.

Two Bulls sees the ignominious shooting down of the spy balloon, coupled with the cancellation of an important state visit, as an embarrassing disappointment for Xi, while McCoy counts it as a great victory for China.

I’m old enough to remember the U2 incident and I don’t recall Eisenhower throwing any ticker-tape parades to celebrate, though there were other parallels.

But, then, this all happened back in the days when politics stopped at the water’s edge. Perhaps you had to be there.

Pedro X. Molina (Counterpoint) asks if maybe we’re spending too much time obsessing over spies in the skies when the real danger is here on the ground, leading to a major

Juxtaposition of Futility

(Chris Britt — Creators)

(Adam Zyglis)

(Jack Ohman)

Britt lays out the seeming inevitability of pointless slaughter, with a nod to the people responsible, while Zyglis notes the futility of endless, purposeless, meaningless mourning sounds.

The good part being that it’s unlikely the victims of this latest murder, or of many of the similar killings, have ever heard a phonograph record skipping.

I say “good” because it turns out there were kids on the Michigan State campus who were students at Oxford High, an hour away, back in November, 2021, when a shooter killed four and wounded seven. (Not to worry: There will be an independent investigation of the event, probably maybe sometime in the future.)

And there was another kid who had been at Sandy Hook when 26 of her classmates and teachers were gunned down.

And it’s not like the Parkland kids have forgotten.

They care, and they’re coming, and they don’t expect much from their parents’ generation. Good for them.

Florida Governor Ron De Santis was outraged that a single juror’s choice meant that the Parkland shooter would get a life sentence instead of execution:

When you murder in cold blood 17 innocent people, there’s no other punishment that meets the gravity of that crime. And to have one juror holdout on that was a travesty. So, yes, I’m going to ask the Florida legislature to amend that statute.

Which brings us to Ohman’s accusation: De Santis wants vengeance, but not to stop the need for vengeance. He’s waiting to sign a new law allowing concealed carry with only an optional permit. If you buy the gun from a private party, you won’t have to undergo a background check, either.

Nor does anybody else in his demographic seem willing to step up and address the problem with more than empty bluster and crocodile tears.

Jeff Stahler (AMS) sums the issue up, at least for those of us over 30. We’ll spin the wheel and, as he accurately points out, the odds are strongly against us ever being a victim, which means we won’t have to do anything about it.

The country is full of problems that only matter if they affect us personally. But Gen Z is taking this personally, bless their wounded little hearts.

Roberto Clemente would be proud of them.

Then again, they’re not supposed to be reading about people like him.