Sometimes, cultural moments reflect the media’s penchant for tuning out what it doesn’t want you to see.
That’s been happening throughout the past week, as news giants have milked the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show. While many right-wing outlets have, predictably, trashed it, mainstream media have been every bit as myopic.
They’ve subjected the performance to the same system they apply to far more serious topics:
Hide what they don’t want you to know
Play up points that fit their agenda
Pretend they’re giving you the whole truth
I break this down in the latest episode, and explain how this damaging, two-dimensional system skews coverage of so much else — including a mass slaughter in Nigeria that got an infinitesimal portion of news coverage.
The Drama Triangle
Bad Bunny has spoken out against ICE and faced heated criticism in advance of the performance. Some people complained that he was going to perform in Spanish. The conservative group Turning Point USA held its own alternative halftime show.
So, in the media’s simplistic drama triangle, Bad Bunny is the victim, those who complain are the villains, and everyone championing him — especially in the media — gets to be a hero.
These would-be heroes have spent the past week extolling the performance as, basically, a flawless work of genius. Listeners sent me examples of over-the-top stuff like this, from the disastrous Washington Post:
“In general, the show had the kind of wholesome, traditional family values that would have fit right in with some of the more sentimental commercials that appeared during the game… It felt as if ‘Sesame Street’ had worked up a reggaeton remix of ‘People in Your Neighborhood’ or Richard Scarry’s ‘Busy Town’ had made room for dancers ready to get busy.”
Someone tell The Washington Post to read Bad Bunny’s lyrics! The songs he performed include explicit, very not “wholesome” stuff.
There also was neighborhood energy and celebrations of culture, history, community, and more. And some people are saying that he may have skipped or slurred some words, even while grabbing his crotch and acting out sex at moments. If so, that’s part of the story. So is the fact that musical artists push envelopes all the time. When the news covers any story, it should give you a full picture.
Loving or not loving the performance is subjective. But the word wholesome has a meaning. I looked to see how the Post has used that term in the past: in reference to Florence Henderson (whom I once got to interview) on The Brady Bunch and my friend Bob Saget on Full House. RIP to both of them.
Then again, the Washington Post piece applying that adjective to this halftime show also said, “This may be the first time we’ve seen so-called ‘dwerking’ on national television.” (That word means exactly what you think it means.) Maybe when a victim is doing it, it can be “wholesome?”
Reminder: I try to avoid linking to failed Big Media because they don’t deserve your traffic. But if you’d like to see pieces I mention, do so for free, legally, as a perk to my paid subscribers.
Today’s news giants operate with tunnel vision. As a result, they radicalize more and more Americans, telling them that their preconceived notions are 100% of the story, and that the other side is all about lies.
It’s up to us to call this out.
Paid subscribers: Share thoughts, comments, and links you want me to fact check in the comments or by messaging me.
JL
P.S. Did you know that 800% of Americans catch up on They Stand Corrected episodes at the start of a week? That’s about as true as claims you hear from news giants. But you can. :)