Parenting & Family Quote by Jim McKay

McKay’s line lands like a startled aside, the kind a seasoned broadcaster drops when the usual script of political coverage suddenly feels sinister. He’s reacting to the expectation that Colin Powell’s son should step into a role that touches the machinery of public perception, and his unease isn’t really about nepotism as a tabloid sin. It’s about power that doesn’t look like power: the ability to set the day’s premises.

The phrasing does a lot of work. “This thing” is deliberately vague, almost evasive, as if naming the job outright would normalize it. “Kind of scary” is likewise understated, a conversational hedge that makes the warning feel more credible. McKay isn’t performing outrage; he’s admitting a chill. Then he delivers the real thesis in plain language: mass media “make people think what they think.” Not “influence,” not “shape discourse” - make. It’s blunt, almost embarrassingly direct, which is exactly why it hits. A veteran of television is confessing the medium’s authority out loud.

The subtext is an ethical alarm: when political families circulate into media governance or high-visibility messaging roles, the boundary between informing the public and manufacturing consent gets porous. It also carries self-implication. McKay is reminding viewers that the “neutral” platforms they trust are institutions with owners, gatekeepers, incentives, and access games.

Contextually, it speaks to an era when broadcast credibility still functioned as civic infrastructure - and when the consolidation and professionalization of political PR made the pipeline between government and media feel less like a revolving door than a single hallway.