roachboy

let's see about the logic outlined above (no. 26) that tries to use "market forces" to argue that critiques of faux news and/or clear channel are somehow misguided because there is demand for each.

according to this,
all paintings should be of sad-eyed puppies or heroic bourgeois types following through after a doubtless wildly successful drive on the links, or of seagulls coursing over ocean waves, because people buy them and therefore they must be great paintings.

all music should coverge on britney and/or o-town and/or kelly clarkson and/or [the list of interchangeable pop confections is endless--fill in your favorite] because people buy this music so this music must then represent the pinnacle of musical achievement.

all architecure should converge on prison design because the building of prisons remains one of the fastest growing types of public space construction--there is therefore demand----and because there is demand, prison architecture is necessarily the finest in the field.

because market actors are always rational
you have to assume that each actor exercizes the most refined taste
socially available at any given point.

clear channel itself is equally proof of the above and
confirmation of the market ideology so dear to conservatives
according to which markets tend to equilibrium
involving a diversity of small to medium scale producers each of which is totally rational
because they compete with each other.
so clear channel is really about a diverse radio environment in the states
hundreds and hundreds of small, autonomous radio possibilities
and not about concentration
and homogenization
so clear channel is necessarily good.

within tv-land, the same kind of logic would obtain for fox.
because there is demand,
it follows that there is and cannot be any problem with the fact that most americans appear to rely on television for their information about the world.

because of demand,
which is always rational,
the obliteration of context, the hollowing out of information, the confusion of rightwing political biais with reporting are not and cannot be problems.

so if there cannot be a problem with television as information source in general, it follows that there is no problem with any particular television outlet as information source, nor can there ever be one.


glad you helped me work this out, funbob.
i feel more american now.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite