... how the media work

Best stuff I've read all week

America’s news media have enormous opinion-shaping power.  Therefore it’s vital ...  to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us.

“ OldSpookinteresting "editorial" I found, its may have some resonance here. Due to the author I was unsure if it was allowable on the front page, since some might see this as me proselytizing. Visual and electronic media, today’s dominant media, need a certain kind of content. They thrive on brevity, speed, change, urgency, variety and feelings. But thinking requires the opposite. Thinking takes time. It needs silence and the methodical skills of logic. Today’s advances in technology have increased the sources of human information that the average layperson can access. That’s a good thing. But they’ve also undermined the intellectual discipline that we once had when our main tools of communication were books or print publications. This is not a good development. In fact, it’s a very dangerous thing in a democracy, which is a form of government that demands intellectual and moral maturity from its citizens to survive. Most people who follow the news, for instance, can probably tell you that about 46 million Americans lack health insurance. But most of those same people have little or no grasp of the very different reasons for why 46 million Americans lack health insurance – because that story gets much less attention. Thomas Jefferson, writing during his presidency, put the importance of a free press this way: “ No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press.” news organizations can’t have it both ways. They can’t claim to be impartial guardians of truth in American political life and then act like celebrity groupies at the same time. The news media, despite their claims of impartiality, and despite the good work they often do accomplish, are just as prone to prejudice, ignorance, bad craftsmanship and tribalism as any other profession. But unlike other professions, the press has constitutional protections. It also has real power in shaping how we think, what we think about and what we like, dislike and ignore. America’s media, including its news media, are the greatest catechetical syndicate in history. And if that kind of power doesn’t make us uneasy, it should at least make us alert. When the press portrays itself as the “tribune of the people,” ensuring the honesty of the other major institutions in our society through relentless critical scrutiny – then we need to ask the question, who scrutinizes the press? Who keeps our news media honest? Who holds them accountable for humiliating one political candidate while fawning over another? Nobody elected Brian Williams as the NBC news anchor. And readers can’t impeach the editor of The New York Times – though some people I know would find that a happy thought. What we can do is refuse to be stupid. We can decline to be sandbagged by our news establishment into thinking that marriage for homosexual partners is inevitable or an obligation of social justice; or that Islam and Christianity lead to pretty much the same conclusions about freedom, society and the nature of the human person; or that the abortion issue is somehow “settled” when thousands of unborn children continue to be legally killed everyday. [Render Unto Caesar that which is Caesar's render unto God that which is God's] What we owe Caesar above all is honest, vigorous, public moral witness on abortion and every other vital social issue, whether Caesar likes it or not. [We need to be] the kind of citizens who demand that our news media act with the sobriety, integrity, fairness and honesty their vocation requires. Archbishop Charles Chaput ” And Finally ... OldSpookAnd I admit I do tend to proselytize, even if its in a "soft" manner here. Think of it this way: If you truly believe what you have is the best means of salvation, and you truly care about those you are with, then how can you NOT share it, even if only in a soft, gentle fashion? What does it say of my valuation of you were I to not bother? Penn (of Penn and Teller), an avowed atheist (who has said "The Bible is Bullshit"), puts it well.