Po knows Oprah

The media is increasingly ignoring the true American family, and instead is putting the dramas of affluent families on Page One. It would be okay if they delivered these portraits with a sardonic wink, so that we might laugh at the foibles of the well-off. But there is no wink. Instead, we are asked to sympathize with people’s self-made problems, and these affluent-family issues are held up as representative of us all. Po Bronson’s column shows how media transmits the fears of rich and powerful parents to a mass audience who are then affected by their (natural, but inappropriate) emotional response with negative material consequences. I think media’s amplification of irrational fear can be seen absolutely everywhere. Even this blog!