Super Bowl 52, according to Marshall McLuhan

NFL football is America’s most popular sport. Super Bowl 52 baby! The game, New England Patriots versus Philadelphia Eagles, will be played in front of 70,000 fans at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. A domed stadium protected from the Minnesota elements. The real audience, however, the group that matters to advertisers, stays home and is watching the game from a couch. Advertisers will pay $7 million or so for a 30 second ad. Just to get those eyeballs on their products.

The Super Bowl has become a national holiday. Legions of football fans will visit the supermarket in the days prior to the game. Mountains of beer, dips, chips, hot sauce, guacamole, burgers, hot dogs and all kind of BBQ meats will fly off the shelves. Fans stocking their freezers like a prepper the night before the apocalypse.

Football has supplanted baseball as the national pastime. Marshall McLuhan, the media guru, saw it all coming. Football’s rise, he suggested, was connected to its compatibility with the TV medium.

It is the inclusive mesh of the TV image, in particular, that spells for a while at least, the doom of baseball.

(Understanding Media, p.238)

I remember watching the NY Giants (“the football Giants“). I peering at grainy black-and-white heroes: Y.A. Tittle, the baldheaded QB, Sam Huff, the tough guy linebacker, Frank Gifford, the golden boy running back, and linemen Andy Robustelli, and Rosey Grier. The images have gotten clearer in 50 years and NFL football has risen to the top.

For baseball is a game of one-thing-at-a-time fixed positions and visibly delegated specialist such as belonged to the now passing mechanical age.

In contrast, America football is nonpositional, and any or all of the players can switch to any role during play.

(UM, page 239)

McLuhan explained that football works differently than baseball. Football has more simultaneous action, more moving parts than baseball. The same guy that blocks might also be a running back. Who knows? Tom Brady might throw an interception and then tackle the defensive back who grabbed the pass. Don’t count on it.

Football, as the very image of the new corporate and participant ways of electric living, fosters habits of unified awareness and social interdependence… When culture changes, so do games.

(UM, page 239)

Instant replay will be a big part of the game. Replays can highlight spectacular plays. They will also be used to review  referee decisions. The referee’s decisions can actually be reversed by “the guys up in the booth,” officials not visible to the fans with the power to change decisions made on the field.

The footage is examined with the care of a rabbinical student learning the Torah. The TV sports announcers argue the possible different interpretations…Did he juggle the ball or have control the ball…. Did he stay in bounds or did his cleat hit the white line…?

The discussion animates the presentation. The TV announcers consider the options with great brio and focus—and then we learn the outcome from the officials. Those decisions may get dissected all week-- by the big time ESPN national show hosts and an army of lesser-known, radio hosts fast-talking from across the hinterland.

McLuhan commented that baseball “has been dislodged from the social center and been conveyed to the periphery of American life.” Football, by contrast “goes very well the new needs of decentralized team in the electric age.”

Think about this when you quaff the adult beverage of your choice and/or dip you chop into the hot sauce. Or maybe not.

George Lakoff: exposing Donald Trump

Somebody finally pulled back the curtain on Donald J. Trump? Maybe Donald Trump has hypnotized the USA, maybe even the whole globe, with his crazy, brilliant tweets. At least somebody figured it out—and his name is George Lakoff, a retired UC Berkeley professor.

Lakoff looks like the cheery professor from Central Casting. He’s full of smiles and a nice tone of voice when he gets interviewed by Ari Melber, a MSNBC anchor. Lakoff smiles but doesn’t get fooled by Trump. He acknowledges Trump is always strategic in his tweeting. And Trump, above all, is a salesman.

Lakoff explains how Trump’s marketing genius works. There are four distinct types of tweets, according to the good professor:

Trump’s Tweets

1)   Preemptive framing

2)   Diversion

3)   Deflection

4)   Trial balloons

The mob howls for Trump to put down his cellphone. How absurd? Trump has the media, his liberal antagonists, the world leaders, including our allies, hanging on his every word. Drop the tweeting... no way. That's like asking Paul Bunyan to get rid of the axe or telling Robin Hood to forget about the bow-and-arrow. 

But finally a TV-talking head reveals how Trump works his magic. George Lakoff, a retired UC Berkeley linguistics professor, sets himself apart by acknowledging that Donald Trump is completely skillful in the execution of his tweets. 

Trumps tweets strategically. His rivals underestimate him. The liberal-minded MSNBC hosts , Ari Melber, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Brian Williams— promote the message for Trump.

Professor Lakoff does not underestimate Trump.Trump promotes himself and his brand with every statement he makes. They are full of hyperbole:

·      the President is the nation—

·      any leak threatens the security of the President

·      live by Trump’s metaphor—any leak is criminal, etc. unpatriotic

Lakoff goes further and points out that Democrats are always playing defense. They understand facts. The analysis is brilliant. Dems are great on policy but do not understand emotion. Democrats do not understand how the brain works. It’s all about emotion.

Republicans understand emotion. They turn the political debate into a morality play. But people vote on emotion, not the facts. Lakoff adds that Trump’s Tweets do not make him unpopular. His brand is not damaged. He has maintained a 37% approval rating, plus or minus 2%.

Lakoff sees Trump’s failing as the work of a cold heart.

Trump’s Trigger words

·      winning

·      putting down those below him—immigrants

·      wealthy above poor

Trump’s lack of compassion for others is a function of his narcissism. Biologists theorize on the inflexible nature of the narcissist, imagining the sources go beyond theories. Scientists found highly narcissistic people had less gray matter in the left anterior insula. That is the part of the brain linked to empathy.

Donald is just a cold-hearted money making machine. We are his customers—but he’s the one who is always right...

George Lakoff, bless his cheery brilliance-- revealed the Emperor, er, I mean... the President has no clothes. 

Trump's Antagonists: the MSNBC line-up

As daylight transitions to nightfall across this great land, MSNBC anchors kick the anti-Trump rhetoric to more intense levels. The starting team for MSNBC includes a surprising number of Catholics, liberal-minded folk, with personal family histories that include support for liberal causes. They attack Trump relentlessly but the approaches vary and so does the emphasis. 

Here is the list. Time slots reflect CST schedule:

MTP Daily—Chuck Todd

5:00 PM--The Beat with Ari Melber

6:00 PM-- Hardball—Chris Matthews

7:00 PM-- All In With Chris Hayes

8:00 Pm-- The Rachel Maddow Show

9:00 PM--The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (political analyst)

10:00 PM--11^th Hour—Brian Williams  (Chief Anchor)

MSNBC daytime shows include their fair share of Trump criticism but some attention is paid to presenting the news of the day. Chuck Todd's "MTP Daily" marks the pivot point where any sense of objectivity gives way to analysis by the anchor spokespeople. The daytime folks, including Stephanie Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Hallie Jackson, Craig Melvin and Katy Tur, have an unabashedly liberal viewpoint but their shows are not so dense with the detail or policy analysis that comes in the later hours.

Each MSNBC night-time host has certain strengths. They all tend to be photogenic and articulate, and interview effectively. They standout, however, in their intellectual rigor. The support their opinions with strong logic-- especially Ari Melber, a Cornell University law school graduate, and Rachel Maddow, a Stanford University graduate, and  Rhodes Scholar with a PhD from Oxford University, Many have writing credentials as journalists for leading national periodicals. 

These television hosts comprise some of Trump's strongest antagonists. They may not hold official government positions. None are senators or representatives. But their political power is undeniable. Trump spends much time watching television because television is important. The MSNBC anchor people may be Trump's biggest political rivals. They can be dismissed as "talking heads" but they mold opinion and probably dictate Democratic party policy through their powerful electronic megaphone, projecting their thoughtful arguments on a nightly basis, a feedback mechanism to the Trump tweets of the day.

Here is the info I retrieved from Wikipedia-- with a few of my observations tossed in:

 Ari Melber—born 1980 (37 years)

·      graduate of University of Michigan (BA 2002)

·      law school at Cornell (grad 2009)

·      worked for Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign

·      got position of Chief Legal Correspondent with MSNBC in April 2015

·      July 2017 – began hosting The Beat with Ari Melber

·      Sharp, clear thinker

·      Best dressed with great ties

·      Goes deeper with stories

·      Has a lawyer’s sense of precision and logic

Chris Matthews—born 1945 (age 72 years)

·      started with United States Capitol Police

·      speechwriter for Jimmy Carter

·      worked for Tip O’Neill, political battles with Reagan administration

·      described himself as a “centrist”

·      Hardball started in 1997

·      Graduate of Holy Cross 

·      Roman Catholic

·      Has a youthful quality

·      Knows politics from pre-Internet

·      Talks fast, 

·      interrupts guests who are getting lost in their own rhetoric

Chris Hayes—born 1979 (38 years)

·      Brown University (2001 grad)

·      Father did community organizing in the Bronx

·      Raised Catholic

·      Editor at large with Nation magazine

·      Has a grad student quality

·      Took over Ed Schulz time slot in March 2013

Rachel Maddow-- born 1973 (44 years)

·      first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program

·      Stanford grad (1994)

·      Rhodes Scholar

·      PhD from Oxford University

·      Raised “very Catholic”

·      Paternal grandfather from a family of East European Jews

·      TRMS debuted in August 2008 after she took over from Verdict with Dan Abrams

·      Called “America’s wonkiest anchor”

·      Father a US Air Force captain, retired and became attorney

·      Her ratings topped CNN and Fox

·      Has followed Trump-Russia story doggedly

Lawrence O’Donnell—born 1951 (age 66)

·      has worked as producer and writer for The West Wing

·      wrote 16 episodes for The West Wing

·      worked as actor—Big Love

·      worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan

·      describes himself as a practical European socialist

·      attended Catholic high school

·      Harvard (grad 1974)

·      Wrote for Harvard Lampoon—popular guy

·      Aggressive debate style

·      Partnered MSNBC with UNICEF to get school desks for children in Malawi

Brian Williams—born 1959 (age 58)

·      from a boisterous Catholic family

·      Mater Dei High School

·      George Washington and Catholic University but no degrees

·      Anchor at NBC Nightly News starting in 2004

·      Suspended in 2015 for misrepresenting his experience at the invasion of Iraq in 2003

·      Returned to air in 2015 with MSNBC

·      Serial exaggerator of his own accomplishments