What really scares me..
Posted : September 24, 2004 at 3:05 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
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On Fox News, conservative commentator Ann Coulter said, “It’s unquestionable that Republicans are more likely to prevent the next attack.” Kerry, she said, “will improve the economy in the emergency services and body bag industry.”
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Such instances of puking on an alleged News channel should really come with some kind of a Statutory Warning:
This program ain’t Court of Law. It ain’t Journalism. It’s Opinion. It’s Entertainment kinda like the WWWF programs. Enjoy!
I guess the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) is OK with it if you hijack the mind and soul of millions as long as you do it on cable and do it under the garb of “Opinion” or “Talkshow” or “Fair and Balanced”. They’re OK if prime-time family shows contain obvious references to Sex and Violence as long as the actual expletives are bleeped out. However, they’re NOT OK if you accidentally screw up. No Sir. If you accidentally screw up, no apologies and steps to prevent future accidents would do. No Sir. You will have to shell out $550,000 dollars!
Let’s think about this for a second:
Today in this country, a good section of the population prefers a show on the Comedy Central Channel to get their news. Today, more viewers tune into this 24×7 News Channel that manufactures news based on their ideology (kinda like Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies) and shuns journalistic integrity as some outworn fad. Today, irrespective of your political affiliations, people trust the media as much as they trust strangers. They don’t! And yet, the fact remains that the Media continue to affect us in more ways than we would like to admit. Our likes and dislikes. Our judgment of what’s right and what’s wrong. Our way of thinking. Heck, our very way of existence seems to be driven by the content thrust upon us via radio and television airwaves.
This scenario cannot bode well for any democracy let alone the one which sits on a pile of nuclear weapons of its own and which happens to be the only super-power in the world.
They say we should be afraid of WMDs slipping into the hands of terrorists. How is it different from the military and economic might (including the WMDs) of this country falling into the hands of the political extremists amongst us - the neo-conservatives (also known as the neocons, the vulcans). Seems to me that the results would be the same - a Global Catastrophe waiting to happen!
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004