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roachboy · 10-25-2004, 07:26 AM

this kind of story operates with a set of assumptions about the short attention span particular to a broadcast media-dominated environment--it too has the earmarks of a karl rove special, the ridiculous distortion floated in the press for a few days, that does its damage because it is promkinent, and that is denied later or qualified later--the denial or qualification being printed on page 8 or mentioned in passing on tv.

the quote that began this thread was a problem because it was presented out of context.
it surfaced in the context of american right anger at the guardian's letter writing campaign.
it assumed that the people who were harumphing their way into a righteous lather did not and would not read the actual article, so the right press was free to make of this isolated quote what they wanted. and you see in this thread how accurate these assumptions were about the audience for such claims.

the problem here is not about humor. it is not about whether conservatives feel beleagured because their positions are such obvious targets for ridicule. it as more about how the right press operates. and now that the guardian issued a response that simply pointed out that the line was perhaps tasteless but was at the end of a humorous piece published in a humor column, you would expect this whole thing to no longer occupy much space in either here or in the right media environment.

because the next step would be to turn the questions back around on the right press itself. how is it possible that the framing gestures that situated the lines quoted at the outset of this thread could have been missed? do conservative pundits not read? well they obviously have to read otherwise they would not have found the quote. how could they have misread it so thoroughly then? what is the motivation behind this misreading--what function would it serve? you cant assume stupidity to explain this--you have to think about why this story was floated as it was...

unless the karl roves of the world are right about the tiny attention span of the american public insofar as that public gets its information from telvision, say, or finds itself innundated with information, cannot recall things, just rides along the crest of the information wave remembering what they are told, forgetting all else....

10-25-2004, 07:26 AM	#59 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	this kind of story operates with a set of assumptions about the short attention span particular to a broadcast media-dominated environment--it too has the earmarks of a karl rove special, the ridiculous distortion floated in the press for a few days, that does its damage because it is promkinent, and that is denied later or qualified later--the denial or qualification being printed on page 8 or mentioned in passing on tv. the quote that began this thread was a problem because it was presented out of context. it surfaced in the context of american right anger at the guardian's letter writing campaign. it assumed that the people who were harumphing their way into a righteous lather did not and would not read the actual article, so the right press was free to make of this isolated quote what they wanted. and you see in this thread how accurate these assumptions were about the audience for such claims. the problem here is not about humor. it is not about whether conservatives feel beleagured because their positions are such obvious targets for ridicule. it as more about how the right press operates. and now that the guardian issued a response that simply pointed out that the line was perhaps tasteless but was at the end of a humorous piece published in a humor column, you would expect this whole thing to no longer occupy much space in either here or in the right media environment. because the next step would be to turn the questions back around on the right press itself. how is it possible that the framing gestures that situated the lines quoted at the outset of this thread could have been missed? do conservative pundits not read? well they obviously have to read otherwise they would not have found the quote. how could they have misread it so thoroughly then? what is the motivation behind this misreading--what function would it serve? you cant assume stupidity to explain this--you have to think about why this story was floated as it was... unless the karl roves of the world are right about the tiny attention span of the american public insofar as that public gets its information from telvision, say, or finds itself innundated with information, cannot recall things, just rides along the crest of the information wave remembering what they are told, forgetting all else.... __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 10-25-2004 at 07:28 AM..