The sky is obviously falling for the
Obama administration, if you buy into the increasing but arguably exaggerated,
even vaguely unhinged, elite media opinion in the capital.
President Obama and top aides have lied
to the country about the Benghazi raid and the IRS meddling with various
groups. He’s too passive. He sees himself as a victim. “Scandals” are engulfing
his second term. The White House is falling apart.
That’s the drift. But don’t bet against
the same people shortly announcing that Obama has put out the fire, righted the
ship, dodged a bullet, etc. In a world of short attention spans, the downside
of error seems minimal.
The possible lack of perspective is
head-turning and, somewhere in the mix, is technology and a media culture
where, in significant ways, being provocative and "interesting" can
seem a greater priority than being right and, thus, simply more measured.
It’s why I turned to one of the smarter
folks I know who doesn’t live and work in Washington. He’s Howard Tullman, a
lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur who now runs an impressive, scandal-free
for-profit college in Chicago called Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts
Academy.
Tribeca gives fully accredited two–year
degrees in digital arts and entertainment technologies. The “Tribeca” reflects
a partnership with actor Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Enterprises, best known for
its film festival.
Tullman is one of those guys who seems
to know everybody; a politically-active Democrat whose work has brought him close
ties and respect in industries as diverse as Hollywood, Silicon Valley,
restaurant and auto. And given his work at Flashpoint, he’s a true expert on
social media and lectures on it worldwide.
So, when he looks at the reporting out
of Washington, and the role of Twitter, Facebook, cable TV and other means of
instant assessment of political matters, what does he think?
“We’re living in very scary times.
There’s no question that - in the world of web conversations - volume (in both
senses – tone and tonnage) and velocity have completely overwhelmed any kind of
vision or veracity.”
“Every day the biggest blowhards
extinguish even the brightest bulbs. There’s just no room left for considered
discussion or deliberation because the pace of the back-and-forth continues to
pick up and no one in the media can afford to be left in the dust.”
“So it’s every factoid for itself –
shoot first and fact-check later. If you’re wrong, BFD. And we, the
shell-shocked public - are left on the sidelines watching a steady stream of
aggressive and ill-founded accusations predicated on false hopes and made-up
figures without a clue or a trusted guide to help through the crap and the
clutter.”
“When Bob Dylan said long ago that “you
don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows”, he could never have
envisioned a time when the unceasing winds of cheap conversation blew in every
direction at once and whatever the truth may have been was blown out the
window.”
