'Joy' Time Is Over. Time For News on Substance!

It's blatantly obvious that since Donald Trump was almost assassinated and Joe Biden was successfully forced out of the race, the Democratic tone-setters decided to downplay their incessant Threat to Democracy talk and switch to Joyful Warriors buzz. The volume of that theme was turned up dramatically for the Democratic convention in Chicago.

"Joy" is a better spin -- even if the Biden-Harris team hasn't exactly given us reason to be joyful about the state of the country, with higher prices for everything and a massive influx of illegal immigration swamping our spending systems to support them.

But shouldn't this election be about governing, not just "tone"? Shouldn't our media force some specifics? Watching network morning shows each day during the convention would make you feel buried in superficial "joy" chatter and "dance party" gush and celebrity razzle-dazzle.

The Harris campaign's aversion to policy specifics is a nifty match for today's television news, which avoids policy substance whenever possible. It's not in their interest to focus on how Team Biden has performed. That's why it's bizarre that they would attack Donald Trump for concentrating on "personal attacks" instead of policy talk.

As Trump accurately exclaimed at a campaign stop in North Carolina, "They always say, 'Sir, please stick to policy, don't get personal,' and yet [the Democrats are] getting personal all night long, these people. Do I still have to stick to policy?"

Trump's speeches have serious attacks on Biden-Harris policies, but they will pluck out the personal attacks as the only "news" worth mentioning.

Some of the leftist media's reaction is emotional. They hate personal attacks on Democrats, and love to characterize attacks on Harris as both racist and sexist. Call Kamala a dummy, and you're guilty of a double slur. But they feel joyful when people like Michelle Obama slash Trump and his "ugly, misogynistic, racist lies" about Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama implies Trump has a small penis. Those speeches are bizarrely spun as joyful warmaking.

The public should be cynical about all this "joyful warrior" coverage, which underlines how the news networks have used the "news" to sound more like positive advertising. Since Biden was forced out, a Media Research Center study of ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts showed their coverage of Harris was 84% positive, while Trump's was 89% negative.

Let's underline this finding: Trump's coverage remained hyper-negative in the weeks after he was shot in the ear and narrowly avoided a kill shot to the head.

"News" people should be clearing their throats and getting down to specifics. Older voters can remember when television news used to file issue-oriented reports digging into social and economic problems. ABC News had an "American Agenda" series that thrived on pushing liberal "solutions" through government action. It was biased, yet substantive. A "news" person could feel better about being "breakfast for your head" or whatever slogan you prefer.

But focus groups tell TV consultants that this is not what viewers want to watch. They live in fear that people will flip off the newscast and watch game shows instead. So they program "News Lite" and highlight the personal insults, which only deepens public cynicism about how politics is played.

The Democratic convention organizers actually shrunk their space for news networks so they could grant a wider berth to openly leftist youth "influencers," which must make the "news" people grind their teeth. They should buckle down and perform the jobs they are supposed to do. Treat the voters like they're serious citizens who aren't swayed by which party has better dance moves.

========

Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.