Henry Giroux: The Corporate Media Has Become a Normalizing Force For the Violence

Henry Giroux nails it. - Molly

I find it extremely difficult to watch the debates about gun violence on the mainstream media. The call for reform is so limited as to be useless. 

Instead of banning assault rifles they celebrate Trump for suggesting that he raise the age to 18 in order for people to buy a weapon of war. 

Instead of preventing violence from engulfing the country and schools, he calls for arming teachers and the press celebrates his willingness to entertain this issue. 

Instead of speaking about justice and allowing people to speak who are against deregulating laws restricting or abolishing the merchants of death, the media allows an NRA hawk to speak at the town meeting, and rather than calling her out for being a spokesperson for violence rather than justice, they congratulate themselves on promoting balance. 

The corporate media has become a normalizing force for violence because they lack the courage to challenge the corporations that control them. They also benefit by peddling extreme violence as a spectacle. 

They refuse to begin with the issue of money in politics and start instead with what one parent called non-starters. Guns disappear from the conversation and appeals to fear and security take over. 

Young people have to lead this conversation and move beyond the mainstream media. And when they do appear they have to flip the script and ask they questions they think are important.

- Henry Giroux