...or are we sheep? RE: The big fuckin' deal over the Sinclair broadcast: Who cares? Sinclair owns the airtime, the fairness doctrine is as dead as Newton Minnow, and the real issue is this: people have to get news from more than one source, and to the extent that they don't, they're abdicating the right to bitch about fairness, or the lack of same. We're shocked--shocked, I say--to find out that the media is biased. Well duh, as the kids say. The media is people, and people have opinions. David Shaw had a good piece in the LA times about this last week, referencing the Rather/CBS meltdown. The point is, you take in multiple threads, and you draw your conclusions. And you have to do the work--it can't always be spoon-fed to you, and opinion won't always be labeled as such. When did we lose the ability to judge for ourselves? Why do we need to have "commentary" flash on the TV screen every time someone speaks their mind; do we really not know the difference between reportage and opinion?
The danger is not really Sinclair; that's the canary in the coal mine. The danger is the dumbing--numbing?--of the American mind, and the loss of the bulshit filters that used to tell us when to tune out, or when to listen with a jaundiced ear. If the Sinclair viewers can't tell when they're being ladled a load of crap, and they don't take the time to inform themselves on the issues, they get the leaders they truly deserve.
