From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Sat Mar 29 2003 - 15:14:17 MST
On Sat, 29 Mar 2003 15:57:19 -0500, gts <gts_2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
> FOX News is a circus act.
All 'cast TV is a circus act.
Every once in a while there's an edutainment segment, and that's as good as
TV gets.
FOX News (at its worst) is just a carnival ten-in-one (the carny's name for
the "sideshow" (which used to be called the "freak show" in simpler times
by more uncomplicatedly tittilated pathetic rubes)). And that can still be
educational if you know how to watch it. But you gotta watch it *all*, not
just the special folks. Watch the crowd. And watch the pickpockets.
For example, "ad hominem is never correct", but OTOH nonverbal/tonal
sneering and dismissal and talking over the other party and not responding
to questions posed and staying on-message at the expense of actual dialog
and transparent mendacity and the emperor needing a new wardrobe, *these*
are all OK--especially if they're not overtly criticized. Have I got that
right?
That's entertainment. Principled discussion on television is almost
impossible. Oh, you can videotape a principled discussion, but it's too
hard for TV audiences to sit through. And then there's C-SPAN, which is
almost never truly principled discussions, just hack politicos moving chess
pieces around out loud, the real conversations already having taken place
in back rooms.
MMB
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