Category: Media

Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

Media 12 Comments

Never underestimate the power of mass media to transform a “good story” into “fact”:

…a growing body of scholarship — which the documentary utterly ignored — has impugned the conventional wisdom and has offered a compelling counter narrative: The War of the Worlds program sowed no widespread chaos and alarm. Instead, listeners in overwhelming numbers recognized the program for what it was: A clever radio show that aired in its scheduled Sunday time slot and featured the not-unfamiliar voice of the program’s 23-year-old star, Orson Welles.

More at Slate: Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio program did not touch off nationwide hysteria. Why does the legend persist?
Via

The American Media: Complicit Misdirection or Pure Ignorance?

Baiting The Left Media The One 24 Comments

In recent days I’ve engaged in numerous conversations with assorted people in Vancouver about the so-called “shutdown” of the U.S. government. In almost every single case, these people had no idea that the “big fight” was mostly about the U.S. government increasing the debt limit to borrow even more money. The people I was talking to seemed completely mystified when I explained this. Giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’re of above average intelligence, a natural question to ask is why do they not know this simple fact?
There’s only logical answer: The sources by which they’re getting their information are not telling them. Given that in many cases, their TVs were tuned to CNN or CBS or NBC or ABC, one has to wonder why these news organizations are not clearly spelling out the opposing views on the subject?
The Ottawa Sun’s Anthony Furey recently published two related columns on the subject. They’re both worth a careful read and this conversation between Furey and Charles Adler is well worth a listen.

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