Several news stories received heavy media coverage in the weekend before Thanksgiving. We heard about the cast of Hamilton voicing their concerns to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, President-Elect Trump reacting to those comments, the President-Elect also on a tweet storm about the New York times earlier in the week.
All of the above topics received heavy media coverage. On Saturday, the 19th, the New York Times, Washington Post and Politico did not have Trump settling his Trump University lawsuit for upwards of $25 million as one of their top stories. Twitter, Snapchat and other social media news outlets were packed with coverage of a message to VP-Elect Mike Pence delivered by Hamilton’s own Brandon Victor Dixon. The neutral and nonpartisan message voiced what would rationally be the concern of all American citizens. Dixon’s monologue could easily be given to any person in a position of power:
“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical. We really do.
We sir, we, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.
Again, we truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.”
This sparked several news stories: The actual message to Pence, Trump’s reaction on Twitter and the appropriateness of the message. The message to Pence was a group of people voicing their concerns and taking place in the political process by taking advantage of an opportunity to directly speak to a person in power. Americans only a week and a half earlier were encouraging each other to take place in the political process by voting, saying it did not matter what your views were but to make your voice heard and vote! The cast of Hamilton simply took part in free speech and our political process. Trump then flooded his twitter with tweets saying Mike Pence was harassed, drawing more attention to the story. This sparked others to comment saying perhaps it was not appropriate of the cast to deliver their message. All of these headlines overtook media coverage.
The Hamilton happening conveniently happened at the same time Donald Trump settled his lawsuit over Trump University. Trump, until the settlement last week, had frequently said he would never settle on the lawsuit. To his credit he claimed settling the lawsuit would be a distraction and inhibit him from working harder for Americans. This may be true but I think we should take a look at how he directed media attention away from Trump U and towards Hamilton. Trump’s other tweet storm of the week was in reference to the New York Times and how Trump views their coverage of him as unfair. This story also dominated headlines.
Between Hamilton, the New York Times and even Trump U, coverage of Trump’s appointments for his cabinet were buried in the headlines. The most notable of these potential appointments being Steve Bannon. Now, while personally I have a variety of political views that are conservative, neo-liberal and libertarian, I would expect many citizens to be shocked that in 21st century America, a white-nationalist and anti-semite would be in any sort of influential position in government. Mark Twain is credited with saying “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” In seemingly all cases of ethno-nationalism, human tragedy has followed.
Another story was also overlooked last week. Saturday was the 153rd anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. In slightly over two minutes, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the principles of human equality adopted in the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but for the principle of human equality as well. The address was given at a time of deep ideological divide, a period some say is comparable to our current political state. This somehow was overlooked by the media.
My goal is not to make “Hamilton is a distraction” a distraction in itself. But, no one should be threatened by the president-elect for political criticism. I do not mean to say that Trump settling his lawsuit is entirely a bad thing or that all of his appointments are absolutely and completely terrible, but we should also try our best to be aware of the numerous other influential events occurring as well. Perhaps this involves questioning why the media is covering a certain thing over another.
In conclusion, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year where we express gratitude and celebrate a holiday based on 53 immigrants coming together with 90 Americans to celebrate the harvest. Chew on that this Thursday.
