I was scrolling through Facebook on my phone last night — wow, you know it’s going to be an original, interesting story when it starts with a sentence like that, right? Bear with me.
I was scrolling through Facebook on my phone last night. The usual scroll, pause, “that’s cute,” scroll, scroll, pause, “that’s stupid,” scroll, pause. Then I paused my scrolling on a video from December that had popped up on my news feed for some reason. At first, I didn’t read which Facebook page had posted it, and, for a split second, I thought it was a trailer for a movie or maybe some kind of sports-related, hyped-up, epic-showdown-of-the-century sort of commercial. Then I realized — it was just CNN’s ad for the GOP debate.
I felt gross about it. It felt weird to me to see something as serious as a presidential debate advertised the same way a blockbuster action movie would be. I had the same thought I have when I see advertisements for reality TV shows, “Ew, that’s so dramatized. I don’t want to watch that.” Then I remembered that it was the presidential debate and that I’m a voting citizen of the United States, and I felt just a hint of guilt for my cynicism. But I wasn't disgusted because I’m disinterested in the next president. I was just turned off by the advertisement of the debate because it was so sensationalized.
Why does the media feel the need to advertise things like presidential debates in such dramatic ways? My guess would be that it’s their attempt at drawing in apathetic Americans (especially young apathetic Americans) and convincing them that politics and debates are exciting and important. However, their efforts have had the opposite effect on this American youth, making me a bit more apathetic than before. I’m not interested in a presidential debate for the drama; I’m interested because I want to know who would best lead my country. It’s unsettling that the media doesn’t always seem to hold a similar opinion.
I have little experience with election seasons, but it seems like this one especially feels more like a reality TV show than a presidential election. Literally, one of the candidates did have his own reality TV show at one point. I feel like the media definitely exploits all the drama that comes out of the personalities of the candidates, and they incentivize watching debates with the promise of a dramatic spectacle rather than with the promise of becoming an informed and wise voter.
It’s easy to blame the candidates themselves for offering easy pickings as far as drama, and it’s also easy to blame the media for taking that drama and milking it for all it’s worth. But it’s just as necessary for us to take responsibility as voters. Don’t fall into the trap of dramatic, reality-show-like debates. Don’t partake in the election process for mere entertainment. Something great is at stake.
Marco Rubio sums it up pretty well in an interview with CNN:
We have a debate like we did two weeks ago, where it gets, you know, pretty heated. People say, ‘Oh, we don’t like it, it’s too personal, they’re not talking about policy.’ So then we have a debate about policy, and people are asking, ‘Well, why didn’t you guys get personal?’ Here’s the bottom line, guys, this is not entertainment. […] This is not a reality show. It’s not about entertaining people, it’s about informing people. We are electing the president of the United States, the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world, and I think it’s important that this person who we’re about to vote for knows what they are talking about.
