If you caught the last episode of Scandal (“Army of One”), you might have noticed just how completely and desperately gullible their media seems to be, not to mention the wide-eyed innocence of those that consume it.
Vanessa Ballard was sleeping with another man – but this story can’t happen right now. President Mellie needs Vanessa’s husband, Jake, to be her new chief of staff. That means he needs to be a scandal-free zone, since you cannot possibly extend that opportunity of a lifetime to someone who is tied up in such a gossip. What should Mellie do? I mean you’d think there would be plenty of well-educated people to choose from for her new chief of staff, and she could just choose someone else. Or, if she wanted to be really brave, she could accept Jakes unconventional private life and still choose him as her chief of staff, suggesting there is nothing wrong with different.
Nope: she can’t do any of those things. She has to change the whole narrative. Next thing you know, Vanessa Ballard is on TV saying how the man she was allegedly sleeping with was a Russian spy. No longer are they the couple of chitchat. She is the nation’s hero; she has put her life on the line to keep the nation safe. Jake Ballard is now the ideal candidate, no the perfect, and only possible candidate for chief of staff.
So how did this happen? How is it that the true story was allowed to be twisted to the extent to where this poor guy from the State Department, having an affair with Vanessa Ballard, is facing all sorts of perjury charges for reasons out of his comprehension? How do people believe it?
Now, I know what you’re going to say, its only TV. But is it? All good TV shows are at least a little bit true. That’s what makes them good. If you think about this, the gullibility of the media and us as consumers of the media seems very realistic. Hear me out:
Who do we get the news from? The media
How do we know the media are telling the truth?
Mostly we don’t; maybe we check other news outlets or read an article, but, well, that’s all media too. We can’t possibly fact-check everything. I know, I know, there are fact-checking websites nowadays, but what makes us trust them? They are media too. Do we know they’re all telling the truth?
Well, we usually assume if more than one source is saying something, it’s probably right, but this doesn’t really make any sense. Just because many people are saying something, doesn’t mean it’s true. Maybe the media think the news they are reporting on is true, but someone else is pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
So, what does this all mean? Scandal is definitely a VERY dramatic show, but next time you’re listening to one of those little 20 second sound bites the TV are so good at producing, maybe you should take a step back and think about the bigger picture.