Like other recent politicized prime-time POTUS
addresses, don't look for Nielsen to post any numbers for Trump's address last night, but does it even matter anymore?
Based on my own back-of-the-envelope calculations of what the Big 3
broadcast networks likely would have contributed to real-time viewing, the real story is that we are now in an era of internet bypass POTUS addresses.
The Big 3 likely account of less than a
20% share of total viewing to other broadcast, cable and streaming sources that did air Trump's election security disinformation pretext rant. Meaning, like so many other aspects of our modern media
culture, that the legacy networks have fallen to their lowest point of influencing our collective consciousness about anything -- much less politicized truth.
To be fair, the Big 3 may not
have televised Trump live, but they gave plenty of oxygen to his address pre- and post-, likely steering more viewers than usual to alternative sources.
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The bigger story is the residual effect
of coverage by all media outlets, and to their credit there was a fair amount, of skepticism, fact-checking and disclaimers.
I mean, even Fox News Channel disclaimed: “Fox News has
not seen the evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement and claims."
The problem is that many Americans don't read the fine print, bother
with fact-checks or apply their own critical reasoning in an age of always-on bullshit. Instead, people just pick and choose the sound bites and talking points that reinforce their preexisting biases
to, well, confirm them.
My point isn't just that live Big 3 broadcasts don't matter -- or at least matter as much as they used to. It's that they are more symbolic than material in terms of
influencing what people actually feel and think.
The good news is that they did make a symbolic statement by not airing Trump's bullshit pulpit live, because that would be the last
capitulation. Cue white flag being raised.
From Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Pulpit to FDR's fireside chats, American presidents have used the power and credibility of their office to garner media
attention, and with few exceptions, we all tuned in.
A decade into Trump's bullshit pulpit, I have to believe many more are now tuning out and that the real damage has been undermining the
credibility of the office altogether.
I don't think anyone knows if that can ever be restored again, but that erosion of confidence of America's highest office doesn't help our country,
domestically or in the rest of the world.
Much like the foreign actors that have been waging disinformation campaigns to disrupt America -- yes, including China, Iran and other enemies as
Trump called out last night, but especially Russia, which has had the most active, ongoing, sophisticated and multi-platform effort -- many domestic actors are doing the same. From the top down.
Like other challenges to ground truth, including AI's impact on synthetic reality, I'm hoping the result is that people just become more skeptical about everything and apply more critical thinking
to anything they see and hear from all sources. Including mine. Be your own judge.