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Commentary: The Fifth Estate
It's the media's job to remind us, we vote with ballots not bullets
On Saturday night, at 6:31 p.m., my son texted me that Donald Trump had been shot.
My response, before even checking the news, was as follows:
oh god. violence begets violence. this is terrible.
If there’s any good that comes from this horrific act it’s the stark reminder that violence always begets violence.
The basic underlying idea of a democracy is that we vote with ballots, not bullets. It’s that simple.
Somewhere along the way, our Fourth Estate — along with the big tech companies and their insatiably agitating algorithms — lost sight of this. Seeking profit, both corporate media and social media companies began amplifying the most extreme voices in our discourse, many of them openly, even joyously, violent.
Now a presidential candidate has been shot, an innocent American father murdered, and others wounded.
The next step, for our Fourth Estate, should be obvious: treat any citizen, media personality or candidate who calls for violence, of any kind, as an enemy of democracy. The same goes for anyone, of any political persuasion, who traffics in eliminationst rhetoric — that is, language that goes beyond prejudice in reducing other human beings to a sub-human category. The same goes for anyone who invokes images or rhetoric in support of civil unrest or war.
Social media companies should voluntarily program their algorithms to suppress violent rhetoric and images. If they refuse, Congress should intervene.
President Biden’s response to the shooting has been sober and measured. He has urged unity and calm. Many other politicians, Democratic and Republican, have followed suit.
The truth is, we all know when someone is appealing to our sadistic impulses. We know when we’re being encouraged to fantasize about the pain and injury we might cause others. This is true of anyone who expressed the desire for Trump to have been more seriously injured or killed. It is also true of Trump himself, who encourages supporters to assault protesters and prizes payback over policy. We remember when he poked fun at Nancy Pelosi, after her husband, Paul, was attacked in their home with a hammer. And of course how he inspired the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The cultural historian Chris Hedges sees sadism as a way for the powerless to cope with an indifferent world, one that leaves them with “a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt.”
Simply put: we turn away from mercy without shame. There’s a transgressive thrill in such cruelty. We also know — deep in our bones — that it’s wrong.
The individuals who work in our Fourth Estate know this, too.
The time has come for them to pull the plug on anyone who incites violence — no matter how powerful or profitable.
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Every single regime that comes to power by promoting violence, hatred, and retribution, brings ruin onto themselves and their country. History shows us that, from the Nazis who industrialized mass murder, to the dictatorships of Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet and Idi Amin.
We are already a nation awash in deadly weapons and mass shootings. Our media needs to recognize the attempted assassination of Donald Trump not as a harbinger of violence to come, but as an opportunity to remind their listeners and viewers and readers — unequivocally — that deadly ideas lead to deadly actions.
Over the past few years, we have witnessed the massacre of innocent Americans in churches and synagogues and supermarkets and concerts and now, tragically, at a political rally. Mass shootings at schools have become so common that children learn how to duck between their desks and barricade the door before they learn their ABCs.
This is a moment for the Fourth Estate to remind Americans that politics is about the power to improve the lives of all constituents, not to punish or avenge our perceived enemies.
Political differences are inherent to a democracy — unpleasant but necessary. The rhetoric summoned to express those differences should target policies, not people. A democratic election is supposed to be a contest of ideas, not a battle of insults and threats.
If enough Americans vote for the Republican nominee, that nominee will be our president. The same goes for the Democratic nominee.
This is a moment for the Fourth Estate to remind Americans that politics is about the power to improve the lives of all constituents, not to punish or avenge our perceived enemies. America will not endure as a democracy if we turn to violence as a means of settling our differences.
My hope, however fragile, is that this awful shooting will act as a wake-up call for citizens of good faith. That, as consumers of media, we will turn away from the endless cycle of hatred, the angry voices forever yelling about how we should be angry, too.
Enough.
Can we please (please) stop talking about who we should hate and start talking about how to solve our common problems: how to heal our planet, care for families in need, stem the bloody tide of gun violence?
I don’t want my kids texting me about who’s been shot. I want them to think about how we’re all going to live together.
