David McElroy

Most people with at least half a brain realize that “reality TV” is anything but reality. It’s scripted and edited to create the drama and tension producers want — to attract and entertain viewers. But how many people understand the same is true of news?

Newsweek’s Howard Kurtz has a great article this week about how Fox News boss Roger Ailes is making changes at his news channel to tweak its positioning. Although the moves are interesting all by themselves, I was struck by some of the details that emerge in Kurtz’ reporting, because it’s very obvious that the purpose of the producers is to create drama, not to enlighten people.

Because Fox let Kurtz have behind-the-scenes access to meetings between producers preparing for last week’s Fox GOP presidential debate, it’s clear that the network doesn’t mind you knowing this. The unreality of news has become so accepted that it doesn’t cross anybody’s mind to be ashamed of manipulating what should be serious discussion into being a televised melodrama about personalities instead. They might as well be plotting to create chaos between cast members of “Big Brother.” Kurtz reports:

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A new poll from Zogby is going to get plenty of attention in the next day or so, because it shows Herman Cain is the top presidential choice of 28 percent of GOP voters. My view is that it’s irrelevant and won’t hold any water, but I’ve been wrong many times before.

Rick Perry is at 18 percent and Mitt Romney at 17 percent. In fourth place is Ron Paul with 11 percent, and then there’s a host of others who really aren’t worth mentioning at the moment.

Writing at Human Events, a writer commented on Paul’s steady poll performance: “Paul’s the most solid performer in Zogby’s polling history for the 2012 GOP race — his 11% might as well be chiseled in stone.” While this sounds like a compliment, it’s more evidence of what I’ve been saying for some time. As much as I like Ron Paul — and would be quite happy if he won — he has no chance of winning.

It’s very simple. There is a very solid core of support for individual freedom. It’s right around 10 percent. It’s not going to get much bigger than that anytime soon. You can bemoan the fact. You can be angry. You can deny it. It’s not going to change. People just don’t want what you and I want. Period.

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The bureaucrats at the UN’s International Labor Organization are worried. They say the world’s economies are heading toward a “massive job shortfall.” Who would have thought that if you destroy the incentives to start new businesses and take risks, jobs would go away?

The problem is that bureaucrats have things backwards. They want policies designed to create jobs, as though jobs are manufactured and come stacked up in boxes. That’s insane. Jobs are simply by-products of economic activity. When you restrict economic activity and make it more difficult for people to be productive, you’re going to get less economic activity — which leads to fewer jobs. What’s so hard to understand about that?

People such as the economic illiterates waving their signs about “green jobs” are just as ignorant about this as the government bureaucrats. They all believe the focus should be on jobs, not understanding that the focus has to be on letting people pursue their own self-interest — at which point the jobs will be there.

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