Commerce
It is so sadly pathetic that the level of discourse and debate that dominates the major American news media—the MainStream Media, particularly television—is in reality nothing more than a well organized wrestling match between camps of opposing corporate interests.
Like a WWF ringmaster, the corporate media seeks to attract a fan base from competing sides that will fulfill their obligation as a target audience for the advertisers that pay increasingly exorbitant premiums for the cherished demographic. Moreover, the corporations seek to incite their compliant audience with invective, slander, half-truths and outright lies, meant to stir the passions of the audience into a frenzy of self-righteous hostility. Like a virtual Roman Coliseum, its thumbs up or thumbs down; liberal or conservative; left or right; us against them; Republicans against Democrats. And it seems to be playing quite well in Peoria.
The fertile intellectual soil that brought forth Thoreau, Emerson, Twain and Mencken is now polluted by the mindless banality of the likes of Ann Coulter and legions of like-mined “authors”; a noxious ether where anyone with an agent can write a book and take to the airwaves to make the big sale. As a result we are witness to an endless stream of media whores, who, through sheer decibel level, somehow manage to frame the public debate on many of the most important issues of the day.
You won’t hear scholar Francis Fukuyama (a conservative) on the highly rated cable news shows. Instead you get a steady stream of Laura Ingraham, Dick Morris, Michelle Malkin, and Glenn Beck. The collective life’s work of these four jokers don’t add up to one of Mr. Fukuyama’s undergrad papers.
The proud tradition of broadcast journalism, of Edward R. Murrow, Eric Severeid and Howard K. Smith has been poisoned by corporate self interest. Where Walter Cronkite once signed off his nightly newscast with “...and that’s the way it is...”, we now get O’Reilly hawking his “Factor Gear”, his next book, and crowing about his latest ratings. Fox News has succeeded in marketing its “fair and balanced” brand to its target audience as successfully as Apple has marketed iPods.
It is no wonder that Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show”, in its satire and parody, has become as important a vehicle for real information as the nightly network or cable news—art reflects life; news has become comedy (now more than ever), and the irony is lost on everyone but the writers at Comedy Central.
What we are left with is the “journalistic” equivalent of “Battle of the Network Stars”—in this corner: The Dixie Chicks; in this corner: Toby Keith. Only this battle, despite the ultimate superficiality at its core, is given a patina of authority by the corporate monolith that seeks not the truth, but more and more mindless consumers.
Like a WWF ringmaster, the corporate media seeks to attract a fan base from competing sides that will fulfill their obligation as a target audience for the advertisers that pay increasingly exorbitant premiums for the cherished demographic. Moreover, the corporations seek to incite their compliant audience with invective, slander, half-truths and outright lies, meant to stir the passions of the audience into a frenzy of self-righteous hostility. Like a virtual Roman Coliseum, its thumbs up or thumbs down; liberal or conservative; left or right; us against them; Republicans against Democrats. And it seems to be playing quite well in Peoria.
The fertile intellectual soil that brought forth Thoreau, Emerson, Twain and Mencken is now polluted by the mindless banality of the likes of Ann Coulter and legions of like-mined “authors”; a noxious ether where anyone with an agent can write a book and take to the airwaves to make the big sale. As a result we are witness to an endless stream of media whores, who, through sheer decibel level, somehow manage to frame the public debate on many of the most important issues of the day.
You won’t hear scholar Francis Fukuyama (a conservative) on the highly rated cable news shows. Instead you get a steady stream of Laura Ingraham, Dick Morris, Michelle Malkin, and Glenn Beck. The collective life’s work of these four jokers don’t add up to one of Mr. Fukuyama’s undergrad papers.
The proud tradition of broadcast journalism, of Edward R. Murrow, Eric Severeid and Howard K. Smith has been poisoned by corporate self interest. Where Walter Cronkite once signed off his nightly newscast with “...and that’s the way it is...”, we now get O’Reilly hawking his “Factor Gear”, his next book, and crowing about his latest ratings. Fox News has succeeded in marketing its “fair and balanced” brand to its target audience as successfully as Apple has marketed iPods.
It is no wonder that Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show”, in its satire and parody, has become as important a vehicle for real information as the nightly network or cable news—art reflects life; news has become comedy (now more than ever), and the irony is lost on everyone but the writers at Comedy Central.
What we are left with is the “journalistic” equivalent of “Battle of the Network Stars”—in this corner: The Dixie Chicks; in this corner: Toby Keith. Only this battle, despite the ultimate superficiality at its core, is given a patina of authority by the corporate monolith that seeks not the truth, but more and more mindless consumers.
posted by jvmuss at 11:22 PM
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