At some point the message really is the message

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

In response to Jon Stewart's criticisms everyone at MSNBC is doing a lot of hand-wringing and soul searching and self-defending.

In response to Jon Stewart's criticisms everyone at FOX is doing whatever they were going to do anyway.

The Stewart message is a bit of an anachronism. For the first two TV generations it was clever and necessary to recognize that the medium was the message. "How does the form of our discourse dictate the content?" That is an awesome insight. It was still quite relevant when Jon Stewart famously rejected the very form of CNN's CROSSFIRE while a guest on the show.

It is, however, considerably less relevant after 8 years of Bush and in the midst of a global economic crisis. At some point the message is such that the message really is the fricking message.

What is wrong with America is that America is poised to vote in such a way that further economic collapse is guaranteed. That is the pressing problem.

How did that problem come to be? Was it because our whole political discourse was degraded by the news media or because of the steady effect of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for 15 years promoting specific beliefs? If FOX had been brain-washing people with yelling a bright colors and fear to be social-democrats and Keynesian thinkers about the economy all this time then we would be in a different place.

The most popular opinion/news media in the nation are propaganda operations. And they make money, so everyone else tries to imitate their atmospherics. No surprise there. But the hideous RW movement of America is not due to too much yelling or dogmatism on TV. It is due to editorial decisions made at FOX NEWS and elsewhere.

The degraded discourse is a MEANS that is effective to push a particular MESSAGE.

Yes, the horrible mode of our political discourse has made the left a little stupider and more reactive. The medium does affect the message to some degree.

But that is not a major PROBLEM facing America.

The medium was created as a container for a specific message and it is the successful propagation of that message that is a major PROBLEM facing America..

The RW is not the way it is because it has had to escalate its outrageousness in a media arms race with the left. The RW is the way it is because that is what it wants to be, as an effective means to power.

I would enjoy cable TV more if everyone on the left was more objective and fair-minded but it wouldn't change the big problems facing America. It would just be better TV for me because, like Jon Stewart, I would prefer less fear and dogmatism and drama in my infotainment.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

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