Tomi Lahren’s possible termination: profit-motive?
Tomi Lahren is/was a conservative talk show host on TheBlaze media outlet. At the end of her program, she began having a three-minute segment that she dubbed “Final Thoughts with Tomi”. She began to pick up media coverage, mostly social media, because the segment was basically her going on angry rants that were right-wing and radical oriented, fueling disagreements from many people.
Below is an example of when she gave her opinion on the Black Lives Matter movement.
She really came into fame when she was a guest of Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.
Beginning to lose her fifteen minutes of fame, in my opinion, she appeared on the talk show The View and made a statement going against a traditional conservative viewpoint:
“I can sit here and say that as a Republican, and I can say, you know what, I’m for limited government so stay out of my guns and you can stay out of my body as well.”
Lahren is conveying that she is pro-choice in regards to abortion. Most conservatives believe that abortion, as a whole, is morally wronng and should be prohibited.
Just days later Lahren was suspended from her show and is now said to be fired completely.
The first thing that comes to mind after the lecture this past Thursday is profit-motive. Profit-motive is defined by the text book as the, “continuous desire to increase capital.”
Profit-motive can be seen in two ways in this case. Both from Glenn Beck, owner of TheBlaze, and from Tomi Lahren herself.
In the case of Tomi, she pushes political boundaries and societal norms by what she says. She does this to garner more views and fame and subsequently more income. The media and capitalism has caused her to act in a way that she most likely wouldn’t. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t see Lahren labeling the Black Lives Matter movement as the new KKK or claiming that President Obama cared more about appeasing Muslims than caring for fallen marines without the attention-grabbing and monetary benefit-producing media platform being created. This is the main reason for her angry rants at the end of her show; she would just be another political content creator without a large following.
In the case of Glenn Beck and TheBlaze, it is easy to see that Lahren was suspended and fired (persé) because of the negative image she puts on the network. TheBlaze logically can’t back and endorse an individual that is on record with viewpoints that conflict with conservative ideology. The possibility of losing viewers and advertising dollars could be devastating to the organization.
Another possibility for the suspension and termination, which Beck denies, is to receive more media coverage for the network and Tomi herself. If the coverage of the issue continues, it could gain more interest in the network and Lahren’s show; meaning more profits in the future.
The underlying reason for anything in a capitalist society is money, specifically profits. Anything that can be done to increase that, within reason of course, is fair game and encouraged throughout capitalism.
