That’s how Glenzilla (Glenn Greenwald), describes the juvenile delinquents who are running our MSM in his new book “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.” Here’s an excerpt, taken from his blog today, titled “The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell” :
Most certainly, the press will pretend to be above it all (“this is not something that we, the sophisticated political journalists, care about, of course”). But they yammer about Drudge-promoted gossip endlessly, and then insist that their own chattering is proof that it is an important story that people care about. And because they conclude that “people” (i.e., them) are concerned with the story, they keep chirping about it, which in turn fuels their belief that the story is important. It is an endless loop of self-referential narcissism — whatever they endlessly sputter is what “the people” care about, and therefore they must keep harping on it, because their chatter is proof of its importance.
“Infantilization” is the word used by Benjamin R. Barber in his new book Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantalize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole to describe the mind rotting influence of today’s infotainment industry.
Thanks to the one-two punch of Ronald Reagan‘s torpedoing of the Fairness Doctrine , and Bill Clinton‘s signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the venerable social contract between government and industry that had provided for an educated public opinion was torn up and replaced by Rupert Murdoch style consolidation, turning the news into just another profit center that appeals to the lowest common denominator.
And don’t expect any help from the courts:
On February 14, a Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely nothing illegal in a major media organisation lying, concealing or distorting information. The court reversed the US$425,000 jury verdict of 2000 that was in favour of journalist Jane Akre, who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information.
UPDATE: See also here.
God help us all.
Unless a free people are educated— taught to think intelligently and plan wisely— freedom usually does more harm than good.
—The Urantia Book
