Thanksgiving and Mass Media

The media is all abuzz that Trump is working on Thanksgiving Day.  What should seem like a good thing is still being spun as a bad thing.  When will the media move on and embrace trump?  Maybe never.  It seems that social media has provided more opportunities for people who were unhappy with Trump winning the electoral college to band together and organize protests most easily. While many people are unhappy about the protests, and I totally understand why, I think it's the essence of thriving Democracy here in our great nation.  The fact that peaceful protests are allowed and that people can complain and organize petitions means that our freedoms still exist and we must claim them if we want to keep them.  The freedom to gather peacefully, to protest, our freedoms of speech and religion... all of these are fundamental to democracy.  Really, even being able to sit during the national anthem when you are on television is a great expression of those freedoms.  Again, not my favorite expression, but I'm glad to see that it is an option.

I recently read an article about what democracy in America looks like today by USA Today.  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/24/eb-white-colin-kaepernick-what-does-democracy-mean-today/94344960/

The article discusses what democracy looked like 70 years ago, centuries ago, and now.  How do you justify a president winning the electoral college and losing the popular vote by about 2 million votes? To be honest, I think people just don't understand how the electoral college works and why it was necessary centuries ago - and why it still is!  

All I know for sure is that this great nation still has thriving democracy and I am proud to be a part of it.

Trump wins!

Clearly the election was rigged...

The media that hates Trump has had an awful week. I immensely enjoyed the looks on their faces as it became evident that he had a fighting chance...as they transitioned to shocked realization that he would likely win...and best of all, when he won!

At the end of it all, I feel sure that Trump was right all along.  The media wanted Hillary to win.  The media did not try to filter their bias or remain impartial.  But as soon as the results were finalized, I feel that they have all been very mature about accepting that Hillary Lost and Trump won.

President Obama's leadership in accepting Trump as the winner certainly has paved the way for a smoother transition than we expected.  Hopefully now that he has won, hopefully Trump will rise with dignity to the office and make us all proud.

Division in America

There's nothing like a presidential election right before
Thanksgiving to bring families together...

After three very entertaining presidential debates, sides have been taken and people are now sure of who they will vote for.  From my own circle of friends and family, it seems that since most people are not really happy with either candidate, the majority of people I know are strictly voting along party lines.

I find this simultaneously frustrating and smart.  Although it's true that your party's candidate will likely make decisions that you will agree with, both of this candidates have serious flaws.



And although people keep asking themselves how these two candidates won their party's nomination and if that can't still be changed, it is a moot point now.  They are the nominees and we must choose between them.  I think that Gary Johnson will probably receive more votes than any other independent candidate ever has, but I doubt he will win even one state.  I feel confident that the electoral vote will never go to him.

The media has really short-changed Johnson.  Feeding into the bi-partisan system, they excluded him from every presidential debate, which I feel was wrong.  If he had been able to get into a debate or two, he may have pulled more votes away from the other two candidates and it would have been interesting to see that play out.

Trump also feels the media is unfair to him, but I can't talk about his incessant whining any more.

Hillary seems to love the media and I believe that feeling is mutual.  It does seem rather suspicious to me that even when Hillary's email scandals and other such things are being released, the television media glances over it as if it were a minor thing.  Social media, on  the other hand, seems to be willing to crucify her for it.  And as social media becomes more and more powerful in the world of campaigning, I can't wait to see how things play out in this election.

The Media That Loves Trump

I think it's pretty well understood by the general public that Trump believes the media is against him and that he thinks they want Hillary to win the election.  But what about social media?

During the last debate, their was a terrible flurry of tweets that promoted hate rhetoric within their posts.  Twitter does not have the same well-prepared methods that Facebook has to try to block hate rhetoric.  But what did Facebook do?

In the face of Trump-inspired comments, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg made a decision NOT to authorize Facebook employees to block the Trump posts.

So why has social media not blocked Trump's hateful rhetoric and his supporters' hateful comments?

I think it's a simple game called Follow the Money combined with the knowledge that when Facebook or Twitter begin to moderate our political opinions, people will move to a new social medium.  Facebook's advertisements have been a major recipient of campaign money in this election and I think that they're smart enough to avoid biting the hand that feeds them.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/10/21/facebook-employees-tried-remove-trump-posts-hate-speech/92524494/

Trump: Sex Scandals are Media Conspiracy

This election is in the tank - and not the military vehicle!

With Trump's degrading description of women and accusations of sex scandals and Clinton's criminal e-mail deletions, we have poor choices for the next person to occupy the White House.

I'd like to start by pointing out something.  In any relationship, it is important to apologize when you've made a mistake.  After Trump's nasty remarks about women, he apologized.  After Hillary's e-mail scandal, she did not.  I think being able to apologize says something about your character... Trump made a huge mistake.  Colossal.  Bigger than his you-know-what.  But at least he had the balls to apologize.

I feel like the election is between a political crook and a business crook, but I'll be honest - I'm fairly cynical when it comes to any politicians.

Although Trump freely admitted to the degrading comments about women (that would have been tough to deny), he has defended himself against the sex scandal allegations.  His words were:

“These lies spread by the media, without witnesses, without backup or anything else, are poisoning the minds of the electorate. No witnesses, no backup or anything else.” - Trump

He feels the media is conspiring against him, muckraking because they would rather have Hillary in the White House than him.  He then made a point, questioning why she had not brought it up before... which I found to be valid.  Why did she not bring it up before? Or did the media just not care before?

In any case, I definitely see the media as pro-Clinton.  I don't find that surprising since they tend to be liberal in general.  But I feel that they will play an important part between keeping Trump accountable and being fair to both candidates.  

You can check out an interesting WSJ article here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-denies-new-sexual-misconduct-claims-calling-allegations-a-conspiracy-1476478799

Social Media & Politics

The world of advertising is undergoing major changes.  The radio has lost many listeners to companies like Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Pandora.  The television industry is also changing due to the popularity of TiVo and DVRs, which allow viewers to tape shows, then watch them back and skip the commercials.  Although billboards and mailers are still viable options for campaign advertising, a new leader has arrived: social media.  And it is pretty well recognized that Facebook (at least for now) is the king of social media.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is leading in 2016 election campaign advertising.  I, for one, must say that I am on social media almost constantly, so their advertising dollars are paying off on my account.  Most (if not all) of my friends have Facebook accounts, and although they may not check their social media as often as I do, they can easily be targeted for ads.

You may or may not know that I am a Disney travel agent.  For my business, my Facebook page and blog use Facebook ads frequently because one of the biggest perks of social media advertising is that you can design a target audience.  According to this article, campaign dollars have been wisely spent on targeted audiences through Facebook advertising.  Facebook, which is already uber-profitable, has hit yet another home run.

Feel free to weigh in and let me know if you find Facebook ads work well for you. And have you seen political ads on your news feeds?

You can check out the WSJ article here:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-facebook-is-dominating-the-2016-election-1475429365?mod=e2tw

Thoughts on Media and Immigration

Trump and Mass Media on Immigration

On September 21, 2016 at 2:52pm, MSNBC tweeted a video clip of Trump discussing the lackadasical American policies on immigration. The clip was incredibly entertaining and brief - you can watch it here. I agree with Trump that the immigration policies here are too lenient and require immediate change.  I don't think the solution to that is a giant wall, but I recently had a personal eye-opening experience that made me re-think my opinion of security even within our country.  My friend is married to an illegal Mexican and she had to fly to Texas with him so that he could return to Mexico and re-enter legally with a visa.  They flew from Atlanta to Dallas in July.  He does not have a valid driver's license, photo ID, or passport.  And yet he boarded an airplane... which brings me back to Trump.

Trump's assessment that terrorists can not attack us unless they enter our country is blatantly incorrect.  Hopefully his staff owns a history book and reminded him of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor - two enormous attacks on the United States that did not require border entrance to the US.  Terrorists could have chosen a Canadian airport to board a plane and taken it into a New York building.

Sometimes I feel like the media just wants to crucify people for having an opinion - no matter what that opinion is.  If you want to admit Syrian refugees into the country, they say you're too lenient and are opening the US up to terrorist attacks.  If you don't want to let them in, you're heartless and defying the very foundation of our nation - immigration.

I don't have a perfect answer on the issue, but I know that the media will continue to play both sides of the issues up to gain attention.  I just hope we can come up with a viable solution soon.