Filed by Bil at 7:37 pm under Fightin' Words, The Media

Have you been feeling like a lemming lately? Here’s why:

High Five Is Out, Fist Bump Is In

“Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?” Thanks, Obi-Wan, you bring up a good point. My first reaction to this video, in which a greeting style that has been around for over a century is presented as something new and exciting (and in which “putting up your dukes” is presented as something that still happens), was the same reaction that one might have to a teenager who has just learned that a mouse is not only something for your computer but also some kind of small animal.

…And for some reason I watched the video again. I think it was the train wreck factor. But I realized that while it’s fun to look upon a major network and say, “ha, I’m smarter than this,” it’s also very disheartening to realize that “this” is a major network.

A major network. Perhaps the majorest of networks. Millions of people watch this channel at any given hour of the day. Millions of people watched this news clip while it aired on TV. And the tone of the news piece is the tone of a leader. Like they know we follow their every whim. Like they are the ones who tell us what to do. They are showing us what they know, and they fully expect us to join in on what they’re doing. And I don’t know if this is their normal tone, but if it is, then the average news-watcher is in trouble. (Luckily for me, I never watch the news.) And it’s a fairly true fact that if you tell someone something with enough confidence, that person will believe you.

Now, I’m no communications major, and I have absolutely no idea who they think their target audience is, but the participants in this clip – the “people on the street” (if you believe the street is really where they are) – seem pretty aware of the phenomenon known as the fist bump. And the news organization is feeding it to us like it’s brand new, like nobody knows anything about it. They also try to tell us that the dalmatian/Clydesdale Budweiser commercial was the most successful Super Bowl ad this year…But I saw the Super Bowl, and that was actually one of the lamest commercials of the year. Factual errors left and right. But it doesn’t seem to be important whether the information is new or accurate or not. Which indicates to me that they think of us, the people, as idiot zombie lemmings. And if you tell someone with enough confidence that they are an idiot zombie lemming, they will believe you, and then they really will be an idiot zombie lemming.

Here’s the best part, though – “news leader” CBS put a piece about the fist bump on the air a day after CNN did. This video is also lame. Lemmings leading lemmings, dude.

Now, I’m well aware that this is not news. The media has been treating the country this way for years and years and years. But I think every now and then it’s important to be reminded of just how stupid we could potentially be…lest we actually be so stupid.