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again, trying to derive a political tilt to "the media" from the self-identification of individual journalists is absurd. the politics of information can be seen from the grid of assumptions that shape the questions that are asked, the way responses are shaped--the structuring of variables and rules for thinking about them. this grid--largely a conservative one at this sad, foul point in history--comes most to the fore in television as a function of its shorthand character--and as chomsky points out well, the debates amongst talking heads on the order of crossfire are fora within which the terms of legitimate debate are imposed, and quibbles amongst positions shaped by those terms staged.....
it seems that the right is offended by any critical distance. it seems that this readines to take offense at critique is of a piece with a basic contempt for democracy, even in its shallow american form. what they seem to argue for is an immediate identification of individuals with the nation with the Leader---all wrapped in the language of protestant fundamentalist ideology. you would think that the economic aspect of conservative ideology might inform their thinking about the press--maybe hayek when he talks about the elimination of competition (dissent) in a situation of concentration as the elimination of feedback loops that make possible any rational action on the part of the remaining firm. according to hayek, monopolies substitute fantasies structured by internal politics for information about the world when there is no friction. from this viewpoint, coming from a central figure in the history of rightwing economic theory, comes an argument the conclusion of which is that conservatives should be grateful for dissent. it might be annoying, but eliminating it would be a fiasco.
i would recommend that folk watch "network" again, particularly the speech that ned beatty's character gives to peter finch, that starts with "you have tampered with the forces of nature, and you will atone...."
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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