An Unenviable Job

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

My early years of growing up included the beginning of MTV and CNN, essentially cable television.  CNN and MTV are synonymous with the 24/7/365 coverage and television just blaring in every place you were in.  Mobile revolution followed the cable television to add to the ever increasing proliferation of (dumping) of anything people can think of on the earth’s ears and eyes.  Both music and news continue to be popular, and multiple cable channels keep at you on every subscription with “breaking news”.  It’s rather difficult to have something breaking 24/7/365 (even with the global coverage), but the teleprompters keep forcing on us with different person every hour, and will constantly tell us it is breaking.

The cable news network is no longer in its broadcasting infancy.  The anchors have been on the air for many years and many of them are familiar and household names, which is in line with the regular network news anchors.  The cable anchors cover the globe and have coverage from most of the hotspots in the world, and the news coverage is at par with the network television.

While the networks have specified time to broadcast news, cable has to keep pushing something or the other are breaking news 24 hours every day.  The election years provide cable special fodder as there are so many so called advisors to political campaigns with drastic and special focus on their candidates.  The 2016 election cycle has been wonderful filler for cable news, with the campaign starting with almost 2 dozen candidates vying for the presidential chair.  As of the first week of June 2016, Trump remains in the race representing the republicans while Clinton and Sanders are still duking out to represent the democrats.  Trump simply knocked out all the politically connected republicans from the race.  The lack of spirit from republicans was unexpected, as Trump simply knocked them out with words and rhetoric which was unexpected for a traditional political campaign.  Trump did not relent until he threw every republican out of the race, and the whole party in disarray.

Trump really doesn’t care about what he says and who he targets on demolishing.  A combination of harsh rhetoric and picking on one community (so far every community except white men) at a time and constantly trashing them has been his way to the republican nomination.  There was no one in the USA or the entire world including himself who expected Trump to become the Republican Party nominee.

Every community (not just minorities and women) not just in the USA but everywhere in the world has been somehow ridiculed and trashed by Trump, but majority of the republican voters still continue to support Trump.  His political elevation is really something to ponder about the mindset of the USA electorate.

Trump spends no money on advertising.  His attacks are directly by himself and his surrogates, and typically they are thru the internet (social media) and cable networks.  They will keep repeating whatever they choose to and they will do it with such conviction, that even when constantly challenged by the anchors and others, they will be relentless in their blatancy.  If you chance upon Trump or any of his surrogates on TV, the incredible audacity they display in their disdain for any political, economic or cultural process is apparent and obvious.  Not just that they are incredulous but ignorant.  Anyone anchoring the program and all other participants has no way of even suggesting a meaningful discussion.  In reality none of Trump’s discussions revolve around policy or problem solving, they are putdowns of something or someone.  The viewers will certainly feel sorry for the host, as the logic is never there with Trump supporters or Trump, they just have no respect for anyone or anything in the world except Trump.

The audience who tune in will have to pull their hair off hearing anything Trump.  Fortunately the normal networks have limited coverage of Trump otherwise the networks will be hearing boastful pronouncements that have never been accomplished, or insults to anyone on earth except white men (not all of them) who support Trump.  The viewer certainly has a chance to switch the channel, but you certainly have to feel sorry for the plight of the anchor when Trump or anyone associated with him is on the program.  You can see the clear discomfort on their faces when covering or discussing anything to do with Trump.  Despite all the arrogance and acrimony Trump still has a section of the electorate showing up to support him.   Although curiosity was the initial entertainment of Trump throwing his hat into the presidential race, it has not been funny anymore.  It is real that Trump will represent the Republican Party, and a section of the population is behind his candidacy.  The yearlong assault on the Americans and the world, along with eliminating all the potential Republican opposition has only made Trump and his surrogates more emboldened, rather than mellow.  The cable anchors really don’t have an enviable position covering politics in 2016.  The anchors are constantly in the hot seat and the viewer has no option but to keep switching channels.  Welcome to America.