As the beacon of red spreads over the nation and the world is reacting to the news of Donald Trump becoming the next American President, one question still remains: has the media deceived the public throughout the campaign?
The media did not get the story right. Throughout all eighteen months of this election, the media did not get the story right. For Donald Trump, making it from the “Apprentice” to Commander-in-Chief of the United States, everyone thought it was a long shot. How did such a failure in reporting happen?
We live in a time of the copy and paste journalism, and social media popularity vote. It is a race to be liked and trending, a deathmatch to write clickable titles and follow a consenting opinion. Before we knew, relying too much on pollsters instead of getting out to report on the real sentiment of the American people, the media agreed that Donald Trump had no chance at the American Presidency.
One media source after the other was jumping on the bandwagon of the popularity vote throughout the election cycle ignoring one of the highest powers: the American voter.
The American divide is not the left-right divide
The Trump vote was not actually a hidden vote.The Trump vote was out there from the very beginning, screaming to be heard, but what the media and myriad election analysts have missed was not the divide, but the actual type of social and political divide fracturing the country.
This presidential election was not happening on the left-right line of division. This Presidential election was not between Hillary and Trump. This Presidential election was between the American people and the establishment, and on November 8th, 2016 these same people have sent a strong and plain-spoken message to Washington D.C.
The media has failed the American people by not focusing on the real problem of this election and for assuming that the voter’s destiny will be decided between New York, Washington D.C. and California. The media has failed the American people by relying too much on pollsters, when in fact all they had to do was to go out and create a more inclusive atmosphere so no one felt stigmatized about expressing their political sentiments. If the media was acting responsibly, nothing in this election would come out as the most shocking or hidden vox populi.
While the technology is advancing and the world is talking in real time, media is relying way too much on passive and automated reporting, producing content for the voters without actually making any effort to find out what they think. It was one-way, top to bottom communication that was prevalent in this presidential election in which everyone, media and government included, thought they were above the American voter.
The media should stop serving the establishment and turn to the American people, allowing to voice freely, and without stigma, their opinions. Media should stop blindly following the pollsters, statistics and those who run regression analysis as votes are not just the numbers. Votes are the people. And in this case, a majority of American people have had their say.
November 8th, 2016 was not a vote for Donald Trump, nor it was the vote against Hillary. This vote was against the state of affairs dictated by the establishment, by a very narrow, one-way passage for making it to the White House.
If the media was more responsible in this election, the people who voted for Trump to send the message to the government, would have felt included and their voice could have been equally acknowledged early in the game. These are the American people who felt that the government was not listening to them.
Moving forward : The key responsibility lies in the media right now
The victory speech Donald Trump gave was anything but inflammatory. In fact, the speech was gracious, setting the right tone for the days ahead. He opened it by acknowledging Hillary Clinton and then he asked the country to come united. That is a dramatic shift from what we have been seeing in the campaign.
For the first time in history, America is having a president who was a total outsider to politics and for the first time an immigrant born in former Yugoslavia for the First Lady.
Considering that two out of three Trump’s wives were immigrants, his hard stance on immigration throughout campaign may turn out not to be that hard at all. In the nation built by immigrants, America now has Melania Trump, the First Lady who was not born in this country.
As America moves forward, the Republicans have to work at bringing the nation together. One of the big challenges for Trump now will be to figure out how to keep the House together.
Perhaps Democrats will use this experience as a learning curve to start listening closely to their supporters who clearly wanted Bernie Sanders to represent them in the White House in the first place. Early in this election, it was evident that America wanted an outsider for a president, and after Bernie was out of the game, Trump just happened to be the next in line.
The world we know has officially ceased to exist. What lays ahead is the time of an adjustment and cooperation. The key responsibility lies with the media right now. Donald Trump is an Elected President but there is a part of the country severely disappointed by the election results. Going after each other, is not the answer. America needs dignity right now. America has to stand behind its president and move stronger together forward.