George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 243

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If the representative media of the past was the newspaper, the representative media of the modern era would undoubtedly be TV. Looking further ahead, internet newspapers and news outlets, as well as video platforms including social media [SNS], are beginning to emerge, but that shift hasn’t fully taken hold yet.

And although TV has become synonymous with media, the fact that even local newspapers from small companies are steadily increasing in sales—enough to operate the newspaper and expand branches—proves that newspapers still firmly occupy a corner of the media landscape.

“No matter how I think about it, this is clearly strange.”

A reporter muttered to himself as he sat at his desk in the small newspaper office.

It might be different in an African dictatorship. But in a free country like the United States, if something happens in the political world, whether good or bad, it quickly spirals out of control, and rumors spread like wildfire unless the government forcibly suppresses them. However, like ink dropped in water, the more ink there is, the thicker and more turbid it spreads. The degree of spreading varies slightly depending on the truth or content of the rumor.

“The speed at which this rumor is spreading is strangely fast. The government’s official position hasn’t even been properly announced yet.”

It was also true that the media landscape had shrunk in many ways thanks to this president. They were told to only state the facts, but as with all laws, wasn’t it full of loopholes the moment it was enacted? Is there even a law that works perfectly as written in the legal code?

In any case, it felt like things had progressed excessively because the Bush administration pushed it forward and gave it strength. The American media, the home of free press, was greatly shaken after that incident, and it was only now recovering.

“And this news is also a bit dubious. I’m talking about the current president. He’s been wielding power like a dictator, but now he’s stepping down.”

It was incomprehensible. He had known from the beginning that the president was no ordinary person, but even so, wasn’t this beyond the realm of common sense? If it were someone else, he might be able to pass it off as a saintly act, but this is the person who ruthlessly wielded an iron fist against the media, which can be said to be the foundation of American free will.

Even at the time, it was mysterious that it didn’t backfire. Although it was framed as the abolition of fake news, in the end, it was media suppression. When the federal government said, ‘This is a special measure to eradicate fake news!’, the media fought back fiercely. But they soon realized that it wouldn’t work at all.

It was because the situation happened to be at its peak in many ways. All the media desperately tried to block it, so the president’s message was not often exposed to the public through traditional channels, but the media could not control the ‘Internet,’ and there were also familiar phone calls under the pretext of ‘investigation,’ so an era unfavorable to the media had arrived.

When the Bush administration invested heavily in IT, which had previously crashed, the industry, which had been parched like a drought-stricken land, soaked up subsidies like a sponge. It didn’t take long for most of the IT industry, which was mostly pro-Democrat, to turn to the Republican Party.

If they had only invested subsidies, perhaps clinging to the Republican Party would have ended with the Bush administration, but they even laid infrastructure with government money, so they couldn’t hate the Republican Party even if they wanted to. To be precise, it was Bush, but in any case, for various reasons, the media was only able to say good things about the government for nearly three years.

To be honest, from the media’s point of view, even that fake news was a culture. It was not a deep-rooted evil to them, and they did not feel the need to abolish it. Didn’t Joseph Pulitzer, who created modern American yellow journalism, say, ‘A newspaper that is not fun is a sin’?

In any case, all the media were recovering and adapting to the new era in various ways. Returning to the question, the person who wielded such absolute power was going to give up that power, so from the perspective of someone who was directly hit hard, this could only be felt as ‘showmanship’.

In other words, it’s like *Samgocheoryeo* [a Korean idiom referring to a staged act of refusing something several times before finally accepting it]. Or maybe he’s putting on a show to create the appearance of politely rejecting it a few times and then reluctantly accepting it because the people around him want it.

With the aftermath of being shrunk in many ways during the first three years, and the shift from newspapers to TV and the Internet creating a synergy effect, the president could not be seen favorably in a situation where sales were decreasing and even salaries were being cut.

While the man was worrying, a senior colleague approached him, put coffee on his desk, and resolved his doubts as if he was wondering what he was worrying about.

“What else could it be? The government is leading the way in spreading it. Oh, and coffee. Are you really going to drink that?”

It was a cup of espresso. However, the differentiating factor was that one cup was close to 500ml [approximately 17 ounces]. It wasn’t something you could easily drink.

“It’s only drinkable if it’s this much.”

“You’re a really weird guy.”

The senior clicked his tongue at the sight of the black liquid going straight into his mouth without any additives like sugar or syrup.

“Would you like a sip, senior? My heart races after drinking it.”

He would rather drink it with water and make it into an Americano. He would never force that into his stomach, and only after shaking his head could he return to the main topic.

“Anyway, whatever your crazy coffee taste is. As I said before, this speed is being intentionally spread here and there under the leadership of the government. There’s no other answer.”

“I’ve known that from the beginning. Think about it. Honestly, is there any merit to it at this point? There’s not even a month left until the election?”

That’s right. There was nothing good about giving up that ‘power’ at this point. Surely, believing that there would be no fraudulent votes in the world just because it was a secret ballot was something that only a child who had just started learning about politics would believe. Even if the current president doesn’t orchestrate fraudulent votes, shouldn’t he prevent the Democratic Party’s fraudulent votes?

Even if that’s not the case, even if he knows that there will be ruin at the end if he doesn’t let go of power at the right time, it’s not easy to let go of it. That’s hard enough, but at an inappropriate time. He’s going to give up power when he needs it most? It was truly a contradiction.

“How would I know? It seems like he’s looking further ahead than people like us. More than that, it doesn’t seem like things will be shaken right now just because some fraudulent votes are involved.”

That was also true. Bush’s popularity showed no signs of waning. This high popularity was abnormal, but it was natural because the world’s political situation itself was turning abnormally.

Of course, how nice would it be if newspaper companies could just say, ‘What’s so important about an abnormal thing happening in an abnormal situation?’ They were at a crossroads as to whether the oppression would continue for the next four years or whether they would finally regain the light of free press.

“By the way, what happened to this overseas dispatch? Who decided to go?”

“Me. And there won’t be any kidnappings this time, right?”

After the ‘French kidnapping incident,’ overseas dispatches were avoided by a limited number of newspaper companies, and naturally, they shrank for a while. Here at this newspaper company, a reporter with dual Russian citizenship was on board at the time. He had barely been covered by the editor’s connections because he only said the right things, and there were many rumors about retirement, but he wrote a special article about his kidnapping experience and rose through the ranks.

In his article, the gunfight between the humans presumed to be from the intelligence agency and the terrorists was truly like something out of a movie. He was trying to fight the current government, saying that it was a dictatorship, and when he was sent to Russia to cool his head, he only took pictures of memorial scenes.

He was truly an eyesore from above, but life is a one-shot deal. He was the very epitome of this saying.

“I don’t think it’ll happen that often. If it happens, his popularity will soar.”

That’s because they even dispatched fighter planes last time, right? Even if a war were to break out, the strong will to protect its citizens left a deep impression on the patriots, and those who were almost completely on Bush’s side became truly devoted to Bush because of that incident.

Not only that, but many people became patriots or supported Bush, a Republican, even though they supported Democratic policies, so it was truly frustrating. That’s why it was the most frightening moment in history since reporters picked up their pens. As time went by, the country was gradually being filled with such people, so they were really worried about the future of this country and the safety of journalists.

The only consolation was that the country was doing well. When we recall that dictatorship is ultimately about cutting the flesh of the country to fatten the bellies of a few politicians, we can say that the United States is close to a dictatorship, but not quite one.

In the first place, if the country was not doing well, patriots would not be able to dominate. Well, it is also a rare sight to see patriots occupying the majority in a free country where they can proudly criticize the country and the government.

“So, where are you going overseas?”

“Africa.”

“Well, if it were Europe, the female reporters would have been making a fuss about going there themselves.”

“I don’t think so. Terrorists are blowing up in Europe every now and then.”

In fact, the Eiffel Tower elevator explosion did make the world buzz. That’s right. It wasn’t that it didn’t receive any attention at all, but Europe was suffering so many terrorist attacks that it couldn’t be taken as a serious problem that threatened the country’s safety. Some even said it was the karma of the 19th century, but that doesn’t justify terrorism.

“But hasn’t it subsided a bit recently? Didn’t they say that a new country was being created in the Middle East? Some of them seem to have calmed down because of that.”

“Who says no? Al-Qaeda has been constantly harassing Europe from the beginning. I heard that the Eiffel Tower bombing was also Al-Qaeda’s work.”

In fact, at this time, all terrorist attacks, regardless of where the statement came from, were being attributed to Al-Qaeda. In internet communities, Al-Qaeda itself was being used as a neologism meaning terrorism instead of terrorism. Al-Qaeda has become synonymous with terrorism.

However, the Eiffel Tower was really Al-Qaeda. No matter what they did, their tails were not easily caught even though the whole of Europe was working together.

“Anyway, where in Africa?”

“East Sudan.”