Welcome to the 2016 Hunger Games

If you watch the news at all (which I sincerely hope you do), I think you will have noticed all the craziness going on.

Election year is always insane. Since the debut of the social media monster, it has become even more unpredictable than usual. For decades, the media has been the main source of our news, whether through the newspaper, television, or radio. It is only in recent years that our society and the world has seen this sudden shift to "new media," AKA our smartphones. Although there are countless media sources because of writers, reporters, and those not working for a major news network and who work for smaller outlets, that doesn't mean that the mainstream have lost their hold on our culture.

The year before graduation, I took a class titled Media Bias. To be honest, I knew there was bias in the media but had never labeled it as such. I grew up listening to remarks from my parents about higher taxes, more government control, and Bill Clinton's White House escapades on the nightly news. There was no end to their criticism, and rightly so. My class only labeled what I already knew: that the mainstream media loves anything named Kennedy and pees themselves whenever they interview a Clinton.

Why do we watch, enthralled, and believe it? I assume it began with Walter Cronkite's coverage of the Vietnam war. His raw footage and dramatic commentary caused the American public to ask themselves and their government what we were doing there and if it was worth it. (I won't get into Vietnam because taking one class from a biased professor doesn't make me an expert.)

Take George Stephanopoulos for instance. He worked with the Clintons on their campaign and in the White House. He loves them. And that's okay, except he thinks he is the greatest journalist that ever graced the television screen BECAUSE he did these things. I vaguely remember his looks being the subject of a Friends episode, with Rachel and Phoebe drooling over them. When you're mentioned on Friends, I guess you've really made it.

So we've got movie star reporters who schmooze with the president, other celebrities, and attend the funerals of evil dictators (See Cesar Chavez/ Sean Penn). But after all that time spent schmoozing, when do they have time to get outside the studio with real people, and report the things that matter?

I had an epiphany in class one day on this subject. I had recently finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy, and made a few connections in my own weird little brain. The author, Suzanne Collins, may not have purposefully meant to comment on the American media, but her imagery involving districts and the Capitol could be a good explanation for what we see today.

If you think about it, our news comes mainly from two places. New York and Los Angeles, the big cities where everything worth reporting happens. In the Hunger Games, all news comes from the Capitol. The End. See where I'm going with this?

You don't hear much from the cities in middle America. District 12 doesn't have much of a voice. Therefore, the opinions and concerns of the average American are constantly overlooked because of the liberal agenda which permeates the nightly news. Every time Scott Pelley smoothly removes his glasses with a flick of his arm, he's acting the part of the media god. What he says is law. His every frown, eyebrow raise, and chuckle tell us what we need to know. In a way, Pelley controls our culture and tells us what we should be angry about, and what we should agree or disagree with. Because, you know, he's the CBS Evening News anchor, the grey haired master who sits behind the all-knowing news desk.

We might as well refer to him as President Snow.

It's almost creepy because Collins wrote the trilogy after watching reality tv shows and marrying that with her interest in Roman gladiator stories. She said the fact that we pit people against each other in ruthless games on live television is not far from the gladiatorial games the Romans obsessed over.

If you study this media bias issue as I have, you'll come to realize that the media controls a large part of our culture. Almost every issue we deal with today is due to their biased reporting. They go hard after those they don't like, and softly pad around the issues with those they prefer not to offend, those they go to cocktail parties and campaign fundraisers with.

In the novels, the districts are forced to watch their children fight to the death on live television. Communities are held captive to what is playing out on the screen, and they live in fear of displeasing President Snow and his Capitol city. Every form of industry that produces in the districts goes directly to the Capitol. And like that, whatever happens in America today, whether joyful or tragic, becomes fodder for the nightly news. Think about the sadness of the recent police shootings all over the country. They reported on it for a week after, but come Monday, moved on to Donald Trump and the Khan family dispute (while ignoring Hillary Clinton's blatant lies and contradictions of Comey's reports.) The grieving families of the policemen broke the hearts of most viewers, but then it was time to move on. And we will never see them again.

After winning the Hunger Games by defying the game maker's plans, Katniss wades deeply into a world where lies and bloodshed are common. As the novels progress and she discovers the underground work which she herself has inspired, we begin to see the control the Capitol has on the thirteen districts. Any uprising is crushed with brute force. People are whipped and tortured into submission in order for President Snow to keep control.

How is this any different than what we see today?

The media keeps us enthralled with what they think is important. They shame us if we dare to disagree with them. They champion "progress" even though it eventually kills our freedoms and who we are at our core. For weeks we had to hear about Lena Dunham and how she sexually assaulted her sister when she was young. Beyoncé's Black Panther tribute at the super bowl was the main story for weeks after the event. Think about it: a woman whose "art" is pornographic in nature is championed by the mainstream media for weeks. "Oh, she's so beautiful! So confident! So empowering!" She's telling young girls that taking their clothes off and paying tribute to domestic terrorists will get them noticed. It will make them better women.

I'll let you decide for yourselves how you see it. But after reading the book and applying it's message to what I see in our media today, I couldn't help but compare the two and make this connection.