STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

A Cautionary Political Tale to the American Public: 

“The Morton Downey Jr. Story” –The Meteoric Rise of Shock/Shlock/ Reality TV on CNN [Magnolia Films].

During a casual Saturday evening meal of turkey [and cranberry sauce], my friend, the hostess, started an effortless conversation which spun off from Donald Trump’s triumphant gathering in Mobile, Alabama.

 The guests, consisting of former Vietnam Veterans and their spouses, agreed that Trump was skyrocketing through the presidential race like a meteorite that hopefully would not burn out before the election. My hostess, an extremely well-versed reader and former health professional, started talking about someone that I had heard about but really did not know much about: Morton Downey Jr.

The table was silent as she described in her usual logical manner how Morton Downey Jr reminded her of Donald Trump and some other political narcissists whose personality pre-empts any consideration for substantive discussion of policy. She then added that CNN was replaying the film underwritten by Magnolia Films entitled, “Evocateur” which portrayed the beginning of Downey’s rise as the “King of Shock/Shlock Reality TV”.

As I watched the unnecessarily long film, replete with annoying commercials, I became quite disturbed by what I was witnessing. Morton Downey Jr, the son of a famous Irish tenor/ film star, tried his whole life to attain the fame and notoriety of his father. However, the son chose a path based on completely inflated narcissism, lies, deceptions and ‘in your face anger’.

For the most part, his TV producers who had facilitated Morton’s meteoric rise in the TV ratings aided and abetted what they euphemistically called a ‘Shock TV Personality’; eager to encourage the narrative that outside of the TV set, Morton was a decent kind man who loved his family. Yet like most hucksters, be they on TV or in politics, their persona becomes the message [Marshal McLuhan].

In the case of Morton, his persona knew no bounds of reality. He affiliated with other sociopaths of any color or message, including the obese Al Sharpton, after he had performed his greatest scam involving a black teenager who claimed she was raped and sodomized by white boys. Of course, Sharpton and Downey knew this was a lie. However, both of them used this tragic case as ‘ratings booster’. 

Sound familiar?
Ironically we see pictures of Morton Downey Jr consorting with a very young Donald Trump at one of his palatial condominiums, Trump Towers in NYC. Whether the producers of the Magnolia film had intended to make this association between a young Trump and a decaying Downey intentionally is up for conjecture. After seeing Evocateur, I decide to write this blog as a cautionary tale to my readers and others that the self-inflated narcissist, be it a business man or politician, can distort any semblance of a rational narrative by simply acting boorish and inappropriately.

Downey and Trump understand all too well that politics and TV shows are literally entertainment where ‘shock and shlock’ created by any side of the political spectrum will override any attempt at a rational, fair give-and-take discussion on any matters of state.

Back in 1976, the brilliant screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky, wrote the foreboding Academy Award film “Network”. This film delineates the cynical use of TV for increasing ratings by showing the blended evolution of reality and reality shows. He predicted that real terrorist/hostage sieges would become part and parcel of daily TV watching. Boy, was he right. Starting wars and crises gained legitimacy in creating increased TV viewing and ratings. 

Two stellar thoughts arose from that film:
“We know things are bad, worse than bad.”

“TV will never be the same.”

You all know that I like Trump. I like the idea of him as a presidential candidate and evidently, a lot of other people do as well. Yet, Trump and other TV personalities, who garner and manipulate mass attention have an inherent destructive element built within their hysteria, eventually they can self-destruct. Continuous ranting and raving about the decrepit nature of our political situation in America will not result helpful solutions. There is an underlying anger and discontent of the political citizenry that is rallying around Trump.  However, if the crowd turns their anger against Caesar, then the Republic must once again dissolve in a coup or into the ashes of history. Morton Downey Jr could not, at the end of his career, discern the difference between his narcissistic fantasies and the reality of every day living.

Democracy demands a certain modicum of psychological sophistication which I believe the American public possess when they have shut off their respective TV sets.

Let me quote my former boss, Dr. Henry Kissinger:
“Now when I bore people at a party, they think it’s their fault.”

Or let me a bit more crass and let one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, explain fame more clearly:
“The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.”