Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he argues that the coverage of Balloon-Boy wasn’t all bad. See his previous OUPblogs here.
Last week, America came to a stand-still as we stood enraptured by television images of a runaway balloon carrying, so we thought, a six-year-old boy. Flimsy as the silver contraption appeared, we gladly suspended all disbelief that the balloon contained enough helium to be carrying a boy within so we could enjoy the side show. (Just as we did for Pixar’s animated movie, “Up,” which featured an old man who used balloons to move his house to a South American paradise.) So for almost two hours, most of the major news networks displaced all coverage of “hard” news to cover what Latimer County Sheriff Jim Alderman has now concluded to be a “publicity stunt.” And I’m going to argue that this was not a bad thing.
As the Balloon Boy story continued to dominate the weekend news cycle, the president and his advisers continued to deliberate on whether or not to send more troops into Afghanistan, and Senators worked behind the scenes to reconcile two different bills on healthcare. So let it be said that our “watchdog” media will switch its attention as soon as it is thrown an infotaining bone. But this is not necessarily a bad thing as long as we are clear-eyed about the media’s priorities. Instead, I think there is something strangely comforting that we allow ourselves such trivial pleasures. If we do not need an ever-vigilant watchdog, it is because we believe – by revealed preference – that government will mind government’s business, and we can tend to our own. Better no coverage of “hard” news than bad coverage, I say.
And this is exactly what the media did at least momentarily last week even as the President and Congress debated world and country-changing policies. Instead of another round of predictable punditry, or fact-checking of the CBO’s estimates of heath-care reform, we were fed images of a helium-filled balloon shaped like a UFO traversing the Colorado landscape. As we are with car chases, we, and therefore the media, were drawn to the balloon chase like flies are drawn to a light. We weren’t so much interested in the outcome – indeed knowledge of the outcome would have waken us up from our trance – as we were in the process, which was visually enrapturing.
For over a year we have watched a presidential campaign turn into a permanent campaign, and the American public is fatigued. We see this in Barack Obama’s dwindling approval numbers; and we also see it in our captivation by a drifting balloon. We are tired, and we are withdrawing from the public political sphere. The infotaining media detected this, and gave us a welcome reprieve.
And perhaps this is as it should be. Ours is a representative, and not a direct democracy. We vote and delegate; they, the elected officials, decide. The constitutional calendar is very clear that the people speak only every 2, 4, and 6 years. As far as the US constitution is concerned, our voices do not matter when we speak at any other time at the federal level. (Though our voices do matter at the state level where such devices as recall and refederanda are sanctioned by state constitutions.) If we didn’t believe this, than we have to deal with the conundrum that if last year’s elections were held in the second week of September, John McCain would have won. Clearly then, what you and I believed on November 4, 2008 matters much more than what you and I believe in October, 2009 (or September, 2008). Opinion polls may capture majority or minority sentiment at any moment in time, but these sentiments (should) have no import on constitutionally sanctioned officers exercising their delegated powers.
The deliberation of troop increases and health-care reform involve complex proceedings in closed-door war room meetings and conference committees reconciling details many Americans know and care little about. Such decisions make bad television, so maybe we shouldn’t try to force a message into an unreceptive genre lest we alter the message. Maybe those we put in charge should simply be let alone to do their job, for our constitution envisioned and sanctioned a low-effort, Rip Van Winkle approach to citizen participation. Sometimes we care a lot and we participate, but other times we tune out; and perhaps that is just as it should be. Last week, as we sat enraptured by the alleged antics of Balloon Boy, we embraced the implicit satisfactions of a representative democracy.
My husband was watching that interview and I said, somethings fishy in Denmark, (uh-oh, dating myself with that old cliche), and I told him, that Dad is strange. The Mom kept smiling. Who would smile when something so seriously disturbing had just happened. If a mother really believed their son was 6000 feet in the air? The whole scene frustrated me on so many levels. Will they get in trouble for causing such a costly ruckus? Who knows.
I once "lost" Philip at a water park when he was about two. I was screaming, crying -- absolutely bonkers -- and this was within the first three seconds of his one minute diappearance. You're right: those parents were too calm, too comfortable with the cameras.
And how do they live? He says he spends most of his time searching for evidence of extra terrestrial life. That's a career when you have three kids?
I guess I'm ranting now.
But yeah, when you see him or listen to him, something is very fishy in Denmark (you can always quote Shakespeare)
Yes all of that is disturbing. But what's disturbing to me is that there's a show called Wife Swap (along with all those other "reality" shows)and that people actually watch and/or participate in them. Why do people feel the need to look in on other people's lives? Do they not have lives of thier own to live? Are they living vicariously through other people? Are their lives that boring to them? Are they that empty? Do they totally lack imagination?
This trend of watching people/celebraties etc. on TV and in magazines has, to me, become a kind of sick voyeurism. The trend may very well be producing people like those parents and their children and a sick need for their 15 minutes of fame.
The other thing that gets me is that it was HEADLINE news. SURELY there are more IMPORTANT things happening in the U.S. and the world.
This is a disturbing story. The family does seem to need help.
I know, Bish. It's almost as if we are granting the dad his wish of having a reality show through all the media coverage.
And Wife Swap...I can't imagine. It's disturbing just to stumble upon.
What Bish said. I don't know the balloon boy story, but I can imagine. Fifteen years ago, there was a mother who claimed her little girl really wanted to fly a plane all by herself. And perhaps she did, but the mom was right behind it, always in the picture, smiling away. The little girl got to live her dream and fly her own plane, with an experienced pilot in attendance. They crashed the plane and she died. The whole thing was just so wrong. The mother claimed that the little girl had gotten to do what she really wanted to do and that that helped with her grief, but what a load of rubbish. No kid has the kind of maturity to make such decisions.
I can't get my kids to do things either, but like yours, they think for themselves. And that's a blessing.
They must have promised that kid something really HUGE to have him agree to stay in that attic. Not that I believe in bribing children--but it definitely works . . . temporarily.
Call child welfare AND make them pay the entire cost of the rescue mission. They should also be blackballed by the media.
sf
From what I've heard, the parents are in trouble. I heard a short interview on the news with some official who said they were checking with the DA's office to see what kind of charges would apply. I'm glad. What horrible parents. At least their son wasn't actually in danger--but next time, maybe he will be. After all, it's might make a good show. >:(
That whole story is sad at so many levels, I feel bad for the kids.
I have nothing to add. You guys said it all...
Hey, Freckles and Deb, welcome! It is disturbing. I almost never comment on the news, but this story got to me.
OMG, Mary. My boys wanted to go on the roof whenever I tied a cape around them (which was most days when they were toddlers). We "flew" around the carpeted, basement playroom instead. That mother was looney tunes. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one with kids living in looney land.
And SF, I've bribed my kids to do things like send thank you notes or not fight in the car. But you can't call that bribing: we are teaching "negotiation skills" --
I'm glad, K.C. It can't just be me who thinks those kids should be taken away. The other, new piece is there is a history of domestic violence in the marriage. The story just gets bleaker and bleaker.
Welcome, JM!
Hi there, Katie. Our posts crossed. Everyone did say it all (well, they're all writers...)
I heard about the interview on Larry King, but only got around to watching it today. What an uncomfortable thing to watch. I feel for those boys.