Quote:
Originally Posted by Dondilion
Fox is obvious. Often those who are drawn to a particular media house do so to reinforce their biases. Fox is so obvious that whoever becomes an incidental member of the audience can easily make the required discernment. One poster here makes the observation that Fox is tantamount to entertainment.
With some media output one should look at selectivity to get a good grasp of partiality.
Hard hitting is often very selective.
At the end of the day media is a business. Demanding autonomy and attempting to brow beat ownership is not realistic.
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You are saying it's not realistic to avoid a mass media regime that destroys the critical thinking ability of a segment of the population, making them into dangerously stupid people as Dietrich Bonhoeffer described.
Don't get confused by this use of the term 'stupidity,' Bonhoffer uses it to mean an acquired functional disability that renders a person impervious to facts and reason. It’s a sociological defect, not an intellectual one: Stupidity isn't about a lack of mental capacity; it is a moral and psychological collapse. People surrender their independence, becoming mindless tools possessed by slogans and catchwords.
We did not have nearly as large a segment of voters in this condition in the past. The process that created them began with the Reagan administration's regulatory 'reform' that released Fox and Limbaugh to create an media ecosystem of endless lies. It is completely possible to restore a less dangerous media enviroment; we had one before. Sanctions for lies will help a lot. It is already a crime to lie to the federal government, and to lie in commerce; we can make it a crime for politicians to lie to the people. Just making it a crime to lie to the people about the honesty of elections would help a lot.