1 thought on “Quote of the Day”

  1. I was watching a baseball game the other night and a young guy jumped on the field and ran around. The camera immediately switched to one of the dugouts, and the announcer said that they had a policy of not showing these bozos because part of the thrill for them was being the center of attention.

    Some media outlets have figured out a similar approach to the problem of publicizing these school shooters and thereby encouraging other deluded youngsters that shooting up their school is a good way to get on TV.

    It is bizarre indeed that the people supposedly so savvy and hip to the uses and abuses of the media cannot see that they are being manipulated by these terrorist groups to get publicity for their alleged causes.

    The alternative is to accept the idea that the media know very well what’s going on, and that their continued cooperation is just that—a willing participation. Given their seeming inability to report on anything but errors and scandel as regards our own military forces, perhaps that suspicion is not so far fetched.

    There seems to be an ongoing mythology amongst media types that if they try hard enough, they can turn every international situation into a replay of Vietnam, and every administration they don’t like into another “Nixon forced to resign” or “LBJ forced to decline another term”.

    At any rate, as I have stated in another context, the problem with the mass media is not bias, which has always existed and always will exist, regardless of any claims of objectivity. The true problems are the relentless seeking after sensationalist trivia, superficiality, and cowardice.

    Those are the problems which need addressing, and my guess is that the failing fortunes of the “professional” media, and the rise of the informal media is one of the spontaneous responses to that situation that will continue into the future.

    Who needs a filter when the channels of communication are so open and accessible?

Comments are closed.