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shakran · 03-30-2009, 12:24 PM

In my opinion that's kind of like asking how to unburn a barn down. It's broken, and probably beyond repair. The majority of the people are either stupid, lazy, or both, which is why we're in the mess we're in right now. They'd rather watch Idol than an hour expose on how the government is screwing up (unless, of course, that screw up has something to do with sex). A few days ago I looked at the latest news segment on CNN's website. 73% of the headlines were either entertainment "news," commentary, or "whee lookit this here video that won't effect you at all." The rest led to news stories that were poorly covered, glossed over pablum.

We'll talk for weeks and months and even years about a white stain on a blue dress and how exactly it got there and with which smoking implement the favor was reciprocated, and we'll talk for months about the clown car with a jillion kids, but people are "tired"of hearing about the war, and the economy's a real drag, man, which we wouldn't be paying attention to right now if it weren't for the fact that we are suffering because of it.

People are lazy, hedonistic, and are either naturally not smart, or not-smart by choice, and that's why the media can get away with spoonfeeding us bullshit and calling it news, and that's why politicians can get away with doing whatever the hell they want to do whether it's in the best interest of the people or not. It's why the GOP can get away with saying that Al Franken should concede the MN Senate race so we can get on with democracy, and then turn around and say that they'll by-god take the matter to federal court even if it denies MN one of its senators for /years./

And we let them get away with it because it's easier to roll over and watch Survivor, or football, or porn.

What we need is a ground-up societal reform and realignment of values. We as a society have to start valuing the many over the self, and we have to stop thinking we are entitled to sit on our asses on the couch all day and be spoon fed entertainment. In short, we have to can the hedonism.

There's nothing that can fix the media until we do that, because until we do that the media is going to be owned by profit-seekers who realize that a story about Bill Clinton's sperm is more entertaining and cheaper to run than a 6 month investigative piece into a corrupt politician in which journalists actually have to go find shit out rather than listening to "portly pepperpot" interns and reporting whatever the hell they blab this week, and until we do that the media is going to be watched by people who would much rather think about the President shoving a cigar into some bimbo than to think about issues that actually have an impact on them and their children.

03-30-2009, 12:24 PM	#16 (permalink)
shakran Tone.	In my opinion that's kind of like asking how to unburn a barn down. It's broken, and probably beyond repair. The majority of the people are either stupid, lazy, or both, which is why we're in the mess we're in right now. They'd rather watch Idol than an hour expose on how the government is screwing up (unless, of course, that screw up has something to do with sex). A few days ago I looked at the latest news segment on CNN's website. 73% of the headlines were either entertainment "news," commentary, or "whee lookit this here video that won't effect you at all." The rest led to news stories that were poorly covered, glossed over pablum. We'll talk for weeks and months and even years about a white stain on a blue dress and how exactly it got there and with which smoking implement the favor was reciprocated, and we'll talk for months about the clown car with a jillion kids, but people are "tired"of hearing about the war, and the economy's a real drag, man, which we wouldn't be paying attention to right now if it weren't for the fact that we are suffering because of it. People are lazy, hedonistic, and are either naturally not smart, or not-smart by choice, and that's why the media can get away with spoonfeeding us bullshit and calling it news, and that's why politicians can get away with doing whatever the hell they want to do whether it's in the best interest of the people or not. It's why the GOP can get away with saying that Al Franken should concede the MN Senate race so we can get on with democracy, and then turn around and say that they'll by-god take the matter to federal court even if it denies MN one of its senators for /years./ And we let them get away with it because it's easier to roll over and watch Survivor, or football, or porn. What we need is a ground-up societal reform and realignment of values. We as a society have to start valuing the many over the self, and we have to stop thinking we are entitled to sit on our asses on the couch all day and be spoon fed entertainment. In short, we have to can the hedonism. There's nothing that can fix the media until we do that, because until we do that the media is going to be owned by profit-seekers who realize that a story about Bill Clinton's sperm is more entertaining and cheaper to run than a 6 month investigative piece into a corrupt politician in which journalists actually have to go find shit out rather than listening to "portly pepperpot" interns and reporting whatever the hell they blab this week, and until we do that the media is going to be watched by people who would much rather think about the President shoving a cigar into some bimbo than to think about issues that actually have an impact on them and their children.