great post paradox.
I too, share your outrage for our mainstream hack journalists that mask as a press corpse.
....Paradox...if you are outraged now....wait til you read our slimey little friend, Jonah's...op-ed in today's LA Times
...nice to know that Robert Scheer got hooked for this moron
Posted by Goyo at March 8, 2007 07:23 AMWe are not a stupid country bent on self-destruction in an orgy of corporate lying and enablement of felons.
The evidence, counselor? Perhaps Americans are getting what they ask for. Entertainment. Thrills. Gossip. Titillation. Veneration of our "betters." Pap. Fifty or so years ago the FCC chief Newton Minnow described television as "a vast wasteland". Now, extended to all media, it's more true than ever. Increasingly the media sees itself as an entertainment medium where a good story sells advertising and bad news inhibits sales. If the American people knew the truth "consumer confidence" and sales would suffer. As the health of our society is commonly measured by corporate economic indicators, we can't become discouraged and stop buying. No. So journalists do what they're told to do if they want to keep their jobs. Don't blame them.
Posted by Don Bacon at March 8, 2007 07:38 AMI am the evidence, Duncan Black is the evidence, Mr. Soto is the evidence.
We are a much better country than we've been the last 7 years, I remember. We can be so once again. One way that will be done is to stop underestimating the American people and spoon-feeding them crap.
You may very well be right, I am not an oracle of absolute truth and certainty. We shall see what happens.
Posted by paradox at March 8, 2007 08:00 AMIt's impossible to underestimate the American people. It's not their fault--it's the government/media complex of which "journalists" are a minor expendable component. Let's you and I go out on the street and ask passersby what they think of Scooter Libby. Imagine the responses. Is that like a Razor? That's why Speaker Pelosi, White House journalists and others have a "so what" attitude.
Posted by Don Bacon at March 8, 2007 08:18 AMThe two things to watch for are 1: inexorable decline in print media circulation numbers equivalent indices for TV, radio and older web content models like stupid yahoo.
2: Consumption fatigue and withdrawal due to debt and discontent with product shoddiness.
There is a growing sustainability interest coupled with a need driven move to buy stuff used in thrift shops, yard sales and through craigslist.
There are Compact and freecycle groups out there with thousands of members struggling to move out of debt.
As the media tries harder to become a constant aditorial, the crappiness feeds circulation decline like a deficit spiral ever downward.
Posted by Chris Rich at March 8, 2007 08:34 AMA good parallel to the media is the food industry--for millions of people in this country, a balanced meal is a Happy Meal (supersized, of course), and a special meal would be eaten at TGI McFunsters. They would probably say that they 'like it,' not knowing anything better, and that 'it's cheap,' and they 'don't have time to cook.'
While any of these may be a partial truth, the fact is that the system is set up to funnel people into these mass institutions, and it takes a concerted effort to break away from them, something that easily gets lost in the day-to-day rush that most people are in.
The fact that the food they serve is overly processed and not very good for you is kept hush, except when the badness is made good by portraying it as a personal indulgence and a low-price pleasure. The result is a country where the majority has lost the knowledge and taste of 'the real,' and instead consumes hyperstylized replications that represent the style, but lack the substance.
In this metaphor, the blogs and netroots are the equivalents of the 'slow food' movement, a popular revolution aimed at reconnecting people with real food and sustainable practices. While there are still millions of people hooked on their 48oz Big Gulps and FOX News, at least there are increasingly viable alternatives, at least for people who crave more than empty calories.
Could Americans handle the truth?
Watergate was extremely difficult for average Americans. They forget it as quickly as they could because they never wanted to go through that again. A reason why they tuned out Iran-Contra. One reason why the Clinton mess didn't work so well for the GOP. A reason why they've let GWB skate for so long.
The whole truth would threaten almost everything Americans hold dear. They will not willing leave their privileged place in the world.
Posted by Marie at March 8, 2007 11:55 AMMarie, what a pleasant surprise.
In the not to distant future I think many will have to leave their so called privledged place in the world, but it won't be a matter of choice...
Posted by John B. at March 8, 2007 11:58 AMKaren Kwiatkowski said the other day: "The great promise of the internet may be that it brings us back to the future, so to speak. In the 1700s, de Toqueville was amazed with our American obsession with information, our abundance of little newspapers, everyone a reporter, everyone with an opinion to share, and many interested parties reading and debating these opinions and observations. This energy struck him as uniquely American, and today, this energy is global, and it is embodied in the internet, in the blogosphere specifically. The blogosphere is that rough, raw and personal reporting, complete with elements of gossip and imagination. Mainstream media is establishment media, the kings’ notices to the serfs. I think Allison’s investigation into how well or how poorly the truth was reported in the run-up to Iraq, within the blogosphere and by the mainstream media, is not only important, but points us into a new place that may in fact lead us to fewer wars rather than more wars. After Iran, that is…. "
Posted by Thomas Ware at March 8, 2007 12:44 PMBRAVO PARADOX. That editorial should be sent to every news agency in this Country.
Posted by Judith at March 8, 2007 02:47 PMa real call to arms
you betcha
Posted by Katherine Hunter at March 8, 2007 05:36 PM