The American version of "House of Cards" is the best political television show that I have ever seen. It combines inside details of the American political system with absolutely superb acting across the board. It also at times sacrifices realism for it's narrative purposes which works great to always keep the viewer involved in the deeply complicated and yet ever so simple story. One of the key political ideas that this show nailed on the head is the idea of the "sound bite."Politicians and political movements rely more then ever on particular terms and phrases to push their agenda and fight their opponents. Staying on message is a vital key to success for political parties. Arguably ever since the invention of television and really ever since politicians started to use the media the importance of the "sound bite" cannot be understated.
Francis "Frank" Underwood becomes involved in a massive fight against unionized teachers in the show when he tries to pass an Education reform bill that essentially eliminates the collective bargaining rights of teachers. Frank seemingly loses this battle in the media at first and he even was embarrassed on national television in a debate with the teacher unions top man Marty Spinella. What turns the issue around in Francis's favor is when his wife Claire, played to perfection by Robin Penn, comes up with the term "Disorganized labor." Francis then instructs his fellow cohorts to mention this term when they do television interviews and he has his print media source use this term as well. Very quickly when a term is used by several different people over the course of several different media outlets in begins to stick in peoples minds whether they realize it or nor. This is why campaign slogans and newspaper headlines are always short. As such these terms begin to take on the false appearance of truth and what is dangerous about this is very often language is a weapon that is used for political gain.
Arguably, the most important weapon that a politician has is their words. How these words play out in the media is even more important to political gain and success. Additionally, the media is usually more then happy to oblige and let these terms enter into the public consciousness. Of course the term "disorganized labor" eventually helps to put more pressure on the unionized teachers and begins to push support away from them. The often maligned Noam Chomsky does a much better job at explaining how the system of "sound bites" works, especially in his book called "Media Control." I cannot help but be impressed at how "House of Cards" is able to make this insider political tactic so plainly visible to it's viewers. I commend the show for using it as a plot device and for being one of the only mainstream American television shows to reveal this practice and show how manipulative and deceitful it can be. You can learn so much about politics from watching "House of Cards." For that alone it should be earning it's place amongst the most important American television shows of all time.
