I don't think that the damage that TV and radio have done...

[SHRED]

...to political discourse in the USA can be overstated. The damage is severe since losing the fairness doctrine especially.

People actually believe Rush and FOX "News".

I am 56 years old and remember the dread kids had in high school when they found out we had to take American History and Civics classes to graduate. This lack of interest in basic governmental structure and function coupled with an overreliance on TV and radio as the two main sources for information have seriously torn our country in half in my opinion.

A few of us developed our critical thinking skills by not going along with, and resisting the best we could, this charade of deception however many people I fear would prefer authoritarianism. A king if you will. Someone along the lines of a Hitler type figure.

Critical thinking takes constant vigilance to maintain. It's not easy. It takes work and correction and the willing to admit when our thinking and feelings are uninformed and misplaced. It is tough on the ego and dare I say most people's pride will not let them go too deep in those realms because it's too painful for one's sense of self righteousness and the comfort that affords.

I fear a vast swath of the population takes the easy way out. The lazy way out. The way that lays back mentally and allows the mind to be filled with the garbage that flows over the mainstream airwaves. The sad part is that after this crap is ingested it is processed and then spewed out as if it is somehow now an original thought, an original feeling, as if the lazy willing victim came up with it on their own.

If I had better writing skills I could convey this even stronger but it all boils down to...when will we wake up?

--

[ewagner]

1. There was an old sappy song....

I think it was done by a group called "The Back Porch Majority" that I heard in my teenage years and some of the words have stuck with me over the years.. something like:

Liberty's Weight is a heavy load
It takes a strong man's heart to carry that load..

to listen to each word
and know what it means...

I can't remember the rest the idea that it takes work to maintain our liberty
and
it takes an educated, informed citizen to apply the critical thinking skills they SHOULD have learned in high school to separate the "wheat from the chafe" of political discourse.

Great post...thanks.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. I couldn't agree more. I ponder this frequently...

and worry about it nearly every day.

The right-wing propaganda and extreme partisan politics begun in earnest back in the early 90's have taken hold.

There are Fox News/Limbaugh people, apathetic people who ignore all of it, and people who employ critical thinking.

The one thing that gives me a glimmer of hope is that the audience for Fox/Limbaugh are older. Their audience will die out, but I've seen the propaganda infect young people of parents who are Fox/Limbaugh people, especially in the realm of flat-out bigotry and racism.

We should read up on how to treat people who have been brainwashed. That's literally what we're dealing with.



K&R

[SHRED]

6. brainwashed is an accurate diagnoses it would appear

[Bluenorthwest]

3. FoxNews is disgusting. But do yourself a favor and do a Nate Silver on FoxNews...

Look up the actual numbers. Look up ratings for other programming opposite FN. Look up ratings for other News programming (hint, FN is not number one at all).
Look up demographics. Look up how many are watching FN, how many are watching reruns of sit coms. Look up ratings for non news cable programs, and for non cable news programs.
The perspective that comes from such research might bring some perspective, if not actual hope. Implication that FN is 'mainsteam airwaves' is not something I'd agree with. First, they are a niche market, small viewership in TV terms. Second, they don't have any 'airwaves' they are cable. The News outfits who do have 'airwaves' also get audiences that drawf FN. Not that they are great guns, but they are not FN.
You are correct that they suck. But if you look at the facts and numbers, you'd see they are not as widley viewed as people on DU assume. They are not widely viewed at all.

[Shanti Mama]

4. Could not agree with you more.

When cable TV stations were allowed to lie and call it news the entire equation changed.

[JackN415]

5. free market. Radìo, TV feed people what they want to hear. It makes $, hence value...

Of course, people spend $ on junk food, unsafe practices, drugs and booze. TV and radio go the way of unregulated drug and booze for the mind.

[winktank]

7. Crazyscript

I was watching The Rachel Maddow Show the other night and I was astounded. I pray there was no script for the show, because it seemed more like a stream of free consciousness as Maddow jumped from Doonesbury to some matriarch to a winning politician with no discernible point to tie it all together. I kept watching to see if the rambling would amount to some kind of unfolding thesis, but after about 30 minutes, I just gave up. If you are going to do editorial news, at least be coherent!

I love NPR, and I love so many television shows on cable; I value both radio and television as mediums. But there's a lot of junk out there too, and it's no fun to see the quality programming stampeded over by what I will call "crazyscript."