Typical to many islands, Puerto Rico has a waste management problem. Typical to the social-political discourse in our country, the U.S. has a media problem.
In an effort to salvage some credibility for his newspaper, even Jeff Bezos was bold enough to recognize that the “mainstream” media has become simply the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. To hopefully salvage their reputation, his newspaper, The Washington Post, will not endorse a candidate for this presidential election.
To those who are aware of world events, the waste management problems in Puerto Rico are well documented as a long-standing issue. The inhabitants of the island are well aware of these problems, which include overfilling and leaking landfills, sanitary and wastewater management problems, open dumping, and surface water and groundwater contamination. To many informed voters, being aware of world events would lead a person to realize the facts as they are stated by PBS, Waste Dive e-journal and the Global Press Journal, as a few of many examples.
There are many types of comedy, including some that make fun of real-life problems. However, with the agenda of supporting their preferred political party, racist is the mainstream media’s current propaganda issue du jour to describe Donald Trump and by extension his followers in response to a comedian’s attempt at, well, comedy.
At Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally that featured speeches from a multitude of politicians, celebrities and famous guests, just one comedian making a joke about the real-life waste problems of Puerto Rico is the only talking point for the mainstream media. It was alleged racist and now the entire event was racist by extension.
A long-standing belief is that the mainstream media are disproportionately liberal or Democrats. It is not just what they inform their readers or listeners, but how they present the information, and sometimes even more importantly what they do not inform their audience. To those who are not liberal or Democrat, the wall of propaganda is almost overwhelming.
To realize how overwhelming this disparate media equation is, the main counterbalance so often complained about by the Democrats, liberals and other mainstream media outlets, Fox News, has a viewership of only a few million viewers in any one day. This paltry total is dwarfed in comparison to the remainder of the media outlets. Yet the howls of bias to Republican ideas is overwhelming. How pitiful are the ideas being presented by the mainstream media that only a few million people who may hear a different perspective can be so vilified.
We can only hope that one day Puerto Rico can solve its waste management issues and we here in our country can solve our media problems to make a better life for all.
Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist and co-owner of a Pittsburgh-area environmental consulting company.