Lauren Paige Kennedy: Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
Lauren Paige Kennedy 
​
Editor, writer, content creator




































Too. Much. Information.

3/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
​I was raised under autocratic rule. Which gives me some insight into the perilous political moment we in the West now find ourselves in. ​
 During this modern era of abundant if annoying acronyms, I blame TMI—too much information, bombarding us at every turn—for our current troubles. Making truth difficult to discern.
 
Let me back pedal for a moment. Growing up in a deeply observant, even radically religious household there was one truth, even if it wasn’t my truth. I was told to disbelieve my lying eyes, ignore all evidence that refuted claims made by higher authority, and stay in step with the regimented corps. Information was delivered top-down and I, a mere child residing at the bottom, received it in palatable trickles; an inundation would certainly flood my senses, and likely drown my faith in the system. So I was spoon-fed a specific set of beliefs. Oftentimes I could barely swallow so much absurdity, but it was my main meal and only nourishment. When I finally rebelled I was left hungry, silently shunned, and eventually discarded.
 
This is how religious cults work—and dictatorships, too. Both keep would-be sinners and strayers in check by instilling fear of reprisal, familial policing, even ex-communication. “My way or the highway,” or so the saying goes. Truth is easily toppled. Few waver from the party line. Those who do must seek their own, separate versions of reality.
 
Interestingly, the dogma that shaped me also forged my rebellion from it. The cult of Christian Science—a doctrine of 19th-century origin that teaches every malady, from cancer to broken bones, is cured through prayer alone, even as medical intervention is deemed the devil’s work—strokes its followers with praise. We are the deeper thinkers, the faithful are told. We read between the Bible’s lines. Being of special intellect, it is we, then, who truly inherit Heaven.
 
The seed for my breaking free of authoritative rule, therefore, was planted, however inadvertently, from the beginning and by design, like an accidental, inherent flaw in the Death Star's structural DNA. My mother raised me to be a thinker, after all, one who remained independent of mainstream ideas. Later, when I grew up to think independently and differently than she did, how could she possibly be surprised?
 
This is where I begin to mix my metaphors, and maybe even muddy them. Because I see parallels between the rebelling U.S. electorate and my younger, less fully formed self, the one who first broke free from what I considered religious tyranny. Only in this scenario, mainstream media serves as autocratic ruler with top-down communication. And Trump voters are the repressed and persecuted—in their own minds, anyway—yearning for liberty and a sense of the “truth.”
 
You resist this positioning, I know you do. But hear me out.
 
On my new, anonymous Twitter feed, which I launched in January 2017 with the sole aim of trolling the new Trump administration while speaking truth to power, I keep encountering and engaging with an unsettling specimen: the Trump Voter as True Defender of America.
 
This vaunted self-perception is, of course, exactly how we liberals and members of The Resistance view ourselves: dealers in facts who are out to right the wrongs created by the spread of so much state-sanctioned propaganda. The difference, of course, is that rebelling Trump voters have come to view CNN, The New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post, and other mainstream media—#MSM, to employ the parlance of Trump’s Trojan Twittersphere—as stiff-collared deacons of the church of misinformation, proselytizing at the bully pulpit of the powerful press. And they do have their reasons for thinking it.
 
Trump voters are not stupid—well, not all of them, anyway. Over the years they, along with all Americans, duly noted how CNN, once a widely respected news resource, has been hijacked by entertaining travel shows and silly editorializing, with blokes like Anthony Bourdain peddling his cloying rogue wanderer in a sexy global adventure series, and Anderson Cooper testing his comedic skills with disastrous stunts including “The RidicuList,” not to mention his frequent un-newsy stints with funny women Kathy Griffin and Kelly Ripa. It seems Anderson & Co. wants it both ways: to be esteemed and to be applauded. How can they expect both?

Equally incredulous, we’ve all simultaneously watched truncated network evening newscasts, competing for disappearing ad dollars, aim their soft focus on baby pandas at the zoo and sweet kids overcoming afflictions rather than delivering the hard-hitting ideas of the day. Just as we’ve witnessed serious journalists such as Wolf Blitzer and Martha Radditz, to name just two of many such transgressing journos, crossing the line between fact and fantasy when they appear as themselves in various films and television shows. (Blitzer, who’s done cameos in everything from House of Cards to Skyfall, is actually listed as “an actor” on his official imdb profile. Radditz, who co-helmed the second presidential debate last October, still self-identifies as a writer, yet she just appeared on the latest episode of the CIA-themed series Homeland interviewing the pretend president-elect, played by actress Elizabeth Marvel. It must be mentioned that Radditz delivers her dramatic lines with scene-stealing aplomb.)
 
Seriously: is it really the Trump voter’s fault that #MSM has lost its credibility?
 
How can seasoned reporters, who’ve certainly done their time chasing down important stories all around the world and should be lauded for it, continue to demand unquestioned respectability as purveyors of truth when they simultaneously pursue faux Hollywood glitz and glamour whilst being discovered as the next hilarious talk show host, a la Jon Stewart? (I’m speaking to you, Brian Williams.) And what of the annual Correspondents’ Dinner, which in recent years has become just another red carpet event? Are these journalists or are they cat-walkers on parade, one can’t help but wonder? Blurred lines may be good for business, but when CNN’s producers are fixated on ratings more than investigating, uncovering, and sharing vital information, however boring it may be, it goes without saying the electorate, and democracy itself, both decidedly lose out.
 
Make no mistake: the #MSM has not had its mantle stolen from it by a cadre of right-wing radio talk show hosts and alarmist conservative websites—rather, it has gladly given it away to them. Like a priest who once mesmerized a rapt congregation with dark promises of hell and brimstone, but who was later found to be raping the alter boys, moral authority has been resolutely lost.
 
And what happened to the suffering print sisters in the process, the black-and-white, beleaguered nuns reporting out of habit? Guilt through association, that’s what. They might not be the abusive priests in this particular simile but they were passing around the same tithing plate to parishioners, just with less success. Patently unfair to lump them in with cable TV news, OK, but when Trump voters torched the church they took no prisoners. Everyone got burned.
 
Now we have “alternative facts” and "fake news." And we shouldn’t act surprised.
 
The proliferation of "so-called" news sites beyond #MSM is the end result. Just like my younger, searching self who sensed there was more to the story and questioned the absolute narrative being handed to me—even recognizing how much of it was total horse shit—the Trump voter looked for different analyses of the big picture. And plenty of unknown, wannabe pundits driven to build their own brands across expanding media channels were only too happy to provide it, carving out ever-more-extreme niches to distinguish themselves, filling the void and answering the demand for news that resonated as “real.” There are, after all, only so many baby pandas, so many guffawing news anchors one can stomach. People—all people, even pill-popping rednecks—want the truth.
 
These same Trump-supporting Americans are now sifting through a heady mix of TMI, and are experiencing the fledgling stages of freedom. I’ve been interacting digitally with them a lot lately, and I’m drawing a universal composite sketch. Many don’t know what, exactly, they believe, only that they’ve been driven to seriously question authority—and that it would take a lot to get them to return to the former status quo. I remember that exhilarating, vulnerable, drunken feeling, comparable to the Amish rumspringa: will I return to the safety of the restrictive nest? Will I simply cherry-pick and choose what I accept, what I reject? Will I go in a new direction entirely? Or will I just happily get shit-faced from so much amazing new stimuli?
 
Conversely, this time around it’s alternative media telling them how smart they are, how special. “You’re such thinkers!” they are congratulated by Breitbart, Drudge, Alex Jones, and the rest. “You know how to read between the lines.” Which is why they dress in American flag t-shirts and post odes to the new revolution, this one certainly to be bigger than 1776, so convinced are they that this “change” movement will bring us all back from the brink, even as they flirt with autocracy, whose familiar characteristics I can’t help but recognize with a shudder. They’re the saviors of this country, they’ll ardently tell you in 140 characters or less. And, for them, it’s the corporate-controlled press they need to fear. A lie our new president has happily promoted.
 
The autocratic, almost arrogant assumption of #MSM helped bring us here. It shoveled a whole lot of manure, and expected the electorate to swallow such droppings without complaint, before very recently beginning to clean up its act out of panic and perhaps a sense of patriotic duty. Only now is it beginning to assess its role in this terrible, stinking mess. It isn't lost on me that for some news networks covering the traumatic election and its ever more troubling aftermath, the ratings have never been higher.
 
I’m not sure what the answer is, but I am actively looking for it—the truth, whatever it might be, and the solution for merging so many competing echo chambers into what might be deemed consensus. If you have such information, please do share it far and wide, adding to the cacophony of so many overlapping voices; in this case I definitely wouldn’t classify it as “too much.” 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Celebrity Health 
    _Kristin Chenoweth
    _Bear Grylss
    ​_Mayte Garcia
    _Malcolm Gladwell

    _Trevor Noah 
    _Gloria Estefan 

    _Ann Romney
    _Taye Diggs
    _Tiffany Haddish 
    ​_Lesley Stahl
    _Annette Bening
    _Marcia Gay Harden

    _Sharon Stone
    _Jim and Jeannie Gaffigan (BRAIN & LIFE)

    _Jim and Jeannie Gaffigan (WEBMD) 

    _Jack Johnson & 13
    Inspiring Ocean Heroes
    ​_ Jack Johnson Q&A (extra)

    _Zoe Saldana

    _Seth Meyers
    _
    Seth Rogen and
    Lauren Miller Rogen

    _Curtis Stone

    _Cameron Diaz
    _Adrian Grenier
    _Neil Patrick Harris

    _Laura Prepon

    _Joe Manganiello
    _Chelsea Handler
    _Matthew McConaughey
    _Jimmy Fallon

    _Chris Rock
    _Hilary Swank
    _Demi Lovato
    _PBS Chef Ed Kenney
    _Queen Latifah (USA Today)
    _Queen Latifah (WebMD)

    _Jenna Bush
    _Rob Lowe
    _Seth Rogen
    _Roseanne Barr
    _Kerry Washington

    _Abigail Breslin
    _Marcia Gay Harden

    _Maggie Q.
    _Anna Kendrick
    _Lucy Liu
    _Ty Burrell
    _Kermit the Frog 

    _Christina Applegate 
    _Anna Kendrick 
    _Reid Scott 
    _Alicia Keys 
    _Claire Danes
    _Debi Mazar
    _Chris O'Donnell 

    _Julie Bowen
    _Taraji P. Henson 

    _Alanis Morissette 
    _Carrie Fisher 
    _Harrison Ford 
    _Kellan Lutz

    _Ang Lee 
    _Stanley Tucci 
    _Sheryl Crow 
    _Lisa Ling

    _Julia Louis-Dreyfus 
    _Joan Didion 
    _Serena Williams
    _​Liev Schreiber
    _Alicia Silverstone
    _Julianne Hough
    _Kelly Ripa
    _Katherine Heigl
    _Amanda de Cadenet
    _Jamie Oliver (WebMD)
    _Jamie Oliver (Wash. Flyer)
    _Tyler Perry
    _Taye Diggs
    _Lauren Graham
    _Tony Goldwyn
    _Curtis Sittenfeld
    _Stephen Moyer
    _Stanley Tucci
    _Ashley Judd
    _Soledad O'Brien
    _Marcia Cross

    _Andre Agassi
    ​_Martina Navratilova

    _Christina Hendricks
    _Louis Black
    _Aaron Eckhart
    _Amy Brenneman
    _Ana Villafane
    _Dana Delany
    _Cote de Pablo
    _Danica McKellar
    _Casey Wilson
    _Torchwood: Miracle Day
    ​_Tia and Tamara Mowry

    _Sonequa Martin-Green
    _CNN's Wolf Blitzer
    _Olivia Wilde

    ​
    The Environment 
    _The "Genius" Landscape Architect Who Is Redesigning Coastlines

    _Researchers Who Measure Plastic Waste in Our Oceans Sound the Alarm

    _Why We Must Save the Whales—to Breathe

    _Meet Hillary Hauser, Citizen Advocate Behind Heal the Ocean

    _The Two Teens Who Took On Plastic Bags—and Won

    _This Actor Used to Suck—and He Wants You to Stop Sucking, too, for a #Strawless Ocean

    _The Wayfinding Wonder Who Sailed Around the Globe to Teach Us About Caring for Planet Earth


    _Two Cousteaus Who Advance  Jacques' Legacy

    _This Hawaiian Chef Is Leading the Sustainable Food Movement

    _Meet the Researcher Behind The Bahamas Plastic Movement

    _This Singer-Songwriter Wants You to Fall in Love With the Sea

    _Paper vs. Plastic Bags? Which Do More Damage to the Planet & Our Health?



    Health & Wellness
    _The Obesity_Chronic Disease Connection: a Special Report
    ​
    ​_10 Revealing Truths About Chronic Sex

    _Work Capitol Hill Like This Blood Clot Survivor (click link for all four installments)

    _Tell Us How You Really Feel About COVID-19

    _"I Had COVID-19. Here's What Happened." (Reported in mid-March 2020, very early days of the pandemic.)

    _Helping Kids Cope With MS

    ​_Meet a True Crohn's Disease Warrior

    _Q&A With a Pediatric MS Nurse WHo Runs a Special Summer Camp

    _Developments in Peanut Allergy Desensitization Therapy (pgs. 25–26)


    _Medications, Treatments, and Habits for Migraine

    _The Dangers of Sugar Consumption in Kids (pg. 26)


    _Why Mediation Apps Are All the Rage
    ​

    _Have You Shared Your Bucket List With Your Doctor? (pg. 19)

    _The Stigma of Alzheimer's May Prevent Its Cure

    _The Long-Term Health Effects of Toxic Stress in Childhood (pg. 25)

    _Is "Drunkorexia" Really a Thing? (pg. 30)
    ​
    _PTSD in Everyday People
    (pg. 15)


    _Music Therapy for the Mind and Body (pg. 17)

    _Depression and Early Death in Women (pg. 13)

    _Mental Health Myths 
    (pgs. 14–15)
    ​

    _The Serious Health Risks of Unemployment


    _Sedentary Teens May Just Need More Sleep

    _Do Online Therapy Sites Really Work?
    ​

    _What Is Coercive Control?

    _New Brain Gains in Alzheimer's Research

    _Weighty Matters

    _Mission to Mars: Keeping Astronauts Healthy (pg. 14)

    _Toxic Office = Poor Health
    ​
    ​_New Research Shows Fitter Kids Make Smarter Students


    _Health Heroes
    ​
    _Jamie Oliver's School Lunch Revolution

    _Does Your Family's Genetic History Define Your Future Health? (pg. 22)


    _Taking a Shot at
    Anti-Vax Beliefs

    ​_Holiday Spoils


    _7 Tips for Female Docs Who Also Want to Start a Family

    ​_Your Pet's Health

    ​_Tips for Adopting a Rescue Pet

    _First-Ever WebMD Health Heroes (an ongoing editorial franchise)



    Healthy Tech
    _Parenting in the AI Age
    (pgs. 23–24)

    ​_Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: What's on the Horizon? (pg. 19)


    _How to Fight Narcissism in a Selfie-Obsessed World (pg. 29)

    _Why We're All Digital Addicts (pg. 14)


    _Managing Kids & Online Video Games 

    _Teens & Tech

    _Can Your Kid's Cell Phone Cause Cancer?

    _Cyber Safety for Kids


    _Why You Should Ban Smartphones at Your Kid's Slumber Party​

     
    Healthy Parenting
    _The Importance of Play

    _Why Guns in the Home Should Be a Parent's Biggest Safety Concern

    ​_When Millennial Adults Move Back Home: a Parents' Guide


    _Is Your Teen Up to Date on Important Vaccines?


    _Don't Fat-Shame Girls

    _The Emotional Challenges Blended Families Face

    _Kids: The Collateral Damage of Divorce (pg. 25)

    _Kids and "Cutting"


    _How to Battle Obesity in Kids

    _Toxic Kid Friendships

    _Why Your Teen Needs More Sleep

    _On the Road With Young Drivers

    _Help Your Kids Excel in Sports

    _How to Talk to Your Teen

    _Is Your Daughter Going Through Early Puberty?

    _Guns & Playdates

    _More on Guns & Playdates

    _Zero Hellfire in My Home


    _5 Things to Tell Your "Loser" Kid

    _Judy Blume's Books Continue to Inspire Kids

    ​ 

    Healthy Lifestyle
    _Ocean Heroes

    _Have You Seen My Dog?

    _Ruby: The Rest of the Story


    _The Great Escape: Traveling With Little Kids

    _New Kids On the Block

    _Three Cities for a Song

    ​_How "Reality Bites" Accurately Predicted the Future of Gen X​

    _Sample Washington Flyer cover: Leonardo DiCaprio, whom I booked as EIC for first-ever "Green" Issue



    Musings & More     
    _On the Male Response
    to #MeToo

    _On Louis C.K. & "Exposed"
    Toxic Masculinity

    _Our Al Franken Problem

    ​_After Charlottesville, What is Freedom?​

    _Too. Much. Information.

    _Dear Madonna: We Aren't Ageist—You Are


    _My Facebook Freeze

    _How the Band Haim
    Rocked My World

    _Facing Aging With
    (Tough) Love


    _How to Love a Dog Without Losing Your Heart

    _On Mothers & Daughters

    _It's Your Daughter's Turn

    _Better Late (A Lesson From My Long-Lost Father)

    _The Death of Sexy?

    _Marriage Equality: The Reverend Wore Pink Pumps

    _Do You Ever Consider
    the Kid You Once Bullied?


    _Lean In to Life

    _The Women of "Mad Men"
    Are the Characters We'll Most Miss

    _Why TV Land's "Younger" Is a #MissedOpportunity


    _6 Pithy Parental Comebacks I Learned From My Mother

    _The Anti-Betty Draper Letter to My Girls

    _Don Draper Did Do Coke

    _The Day My Daughter's Lovey Went Missing

    _Are You A Myers-Briggs School Mom? 

    _11 Books & Films That Make Us Bawl Like Little Babies
      
    _That Stranger Danger
    Video Is Short on Facts

    ​
    _Loving Tips for Grieving
    the Family Pet


    _Lockdown Drills Are the Least We Can Do to Protect Our Kids

    _Joan Rivers: Mother
    of Invention

    _In Defense of Helicopter Parents

    _What If You Knew What Your Spouse Would Look
    ​Like in 60 Years?

    _Yes.


    _Portrait of a Woman

    _Your Real Best Friend

    _My collected writing for The Mid, now merged into Scary Mommy 



    Travel Guide
    _Author of Frommer's
    WASHINGTON, D.C. DAY BY DAY (2007)


    CV
    _My professional experience


    PAINTINGS
    _Father and Son
    _Portrait of Kristine
    _Girls at the Diner, 7 a.m.
    _Dive
    _Plum Is 2
    _Embrace
    _Toes
    ​_Ophelia
    _Nancy's Mother
    ​_A Dog I Loved
    ​_Footrest
    ​_Woman's Best Friend



    ALL ORIGINAL WRITING & ARTWORKS
     © LAUREN PAIGE KENNEDY
    2007–2023



    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    December 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • About
  • Contact