Special
Why Ignorance is Bliss
By Carol Forsloff
Is the world flat? Is it less than 4000 years old? Television viewers not long ago
heard these issues debated on The Views, a daytime television talk program
featuring four women, who expound on a variety of topics in what is to pass for a
combo of entertainment or news. Airtime and expense is used to argue
scientifically-established ideas, those that have long been accepted through
evidence and reason. CNN hosts, on prime-time schedules, spend mega minutes
discussing the mundane, then round things out with the type of small talk used as
ice-breakers at parties that leave listeners bored and impatient. Furthermore what
passes for “breaking news” is often a rehash of information given many times
over with the same words and details, repeated in 15 minute cycles, and that is
frequently neither news nor “breaking.”
That focus on the mundane comes from somewhere. The interaction of the media
and the public and the reluctance of the former to take responsibility to educate
and inform takes a toll on the national psyche. The war in Iraq goes on, and will
likely continue to go on, despite the draining of the nation’s resources, despite
the fact that there isn’t enough money to run a war and run a government at the
same time, and despite the fact that repeated tours of duty have created mental
health problems for myriads of our military men. But the public continues blithely
through its Wal-Mart days, and discussion of real issues is met with blank stares
or hurried looks that say, “I need to get going. I don’t have time to worry about
this. I need to get home to watch American Idol” And the media reinforces the
apathy by talking about useless information and not the essential details about a
ruining economy and a disintegrating social support system for the middle class,
let alone the poor among us. The public doesn’t know or understand the risks
and dangers to its liberty. That’s because those whose responsibility it is to
educate, inform and hold power to account have absolved themselves of the
mission and purpose that made freedom of the press so valuable as to be
incorporated into the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Instead the media fosters ignorance and glorifies bliss by minimizing discussion
about difficulties in a fearful fashion as if it might result in further disruption
rather than solutions. The result is that the public believes that everything is
believed to be open to debate and that there are no facts at all, just differing
opinions.
When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had their last debate before the primary
in Pennsylvania, the interviewers spent nearly an hour talking about the meaning
and relevance of the word “bitter,” the controversial, media-hyped sermons given
by Obama’s former minister, that Obama had already discussed as having content
with which he disagreed, and the erring statement of Clinton about a Bosnia trip.
All of this had been discussed on every television and radio talk show, as well as
the Internet, for weeks. Thus Obama was noticeably dismayed with the
orientation of the debate, and both candidates had little time to answers to
questions in detail about an impending recession, a continuing war, the costs of
immigration and medical care that doesn’t meet the needs of our citizens.
So who’s to blame for this? The media owners certainly. The Wall Street worriers
as well. And some reporters who want neither controversy nor to research
difficult issues. But the public must take its own share of responsibility because if
there is no fact, no truth, no standard and no sense of direction, it will continue
to receive pabulum as opposed to hardy stuff. Many of us will remain as blissful
babies and ill equipped to handle the adult problems we have to face now.
By Carol Forsloff
Is the world flat? Is it less than 4000 years old? Television viewers not long ago
heard these issues debated on The Views, a daytime television talk program
featuring four women, who expound on a variety of topics in what is to pass for a
combo of entertainment or news. Airtime and expense is used to argue
scientifically-established ideas, those that have long been accepted through
evidence and reason. CNN hosts, on prime-time schedules, spend mega minutes
discussing the mundane, then round things out with the type of small talk used as
ice-breakers at parties that leave listeners bored and impatient. Furthermore what
passes for “breaking news” is often a rehash of information given many times
over with the same words and details, repeated in 15 minute cycles, and that is
frequently neither news nor “breaking.”
That focus on the mundane comes from somewhere. The interaction of the media
and the public and the reluctance of the former to take responsibility to educate
and inform takes a toll on the national psyche. The war in Iraq goes on, and will
likely continue to go on, despite the draining of the nation’s resources, despite
the fact that there isn’t enough money to run a war and run a government at the
same time, and despite the fact that repeated tours of duty have created mental
health problems for myriads of our military men. But the public continues blithely
through its Wal-Mart days, and discussion of real issues is met with blank stares
or hurried looks that say, “I need to get going. I don’t have time to worry about
this. I need to get home to watch American Idol” And the media reinforces the
apathy by talking about useless information and not the essential details about a
ruining economy and a disintegrating social support system for the middle class,
let alone the poor among us. The public doesn’t know or understand the risks
and dangers to its liberty. That’s because those whose responsibility it is to
educate, inform and hold power to account have absolved themselves of the
mission and purpose that made freedom of the press so valuable as to be
incorporated into the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Instead the media fosters ignorance and glorifies bliss by minimizing discussion
about difficulties in a fearful fashion as if it might result in further disruption
rather than solutions. The result is that the public believes that everything is
believed to be open to debate and that there are no facts at all, just differing
opinions.
When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had their last debate before the primary
in Pennsylvania, the interviewers spent nearly an hour talking about the meaning
and relevance of the word “bitter,” the controversial, media-hyped sermons given
by Obama’s former minister, that Obama had already discussed as having content
with which he disagreed, and the erring statement of Clinton about a Bosnia trip.
All of this had been discussed on every television and radio talk show, as well as
the Internet, for weeks. Thus Obama was noticeably dismayed with the
orientation of the debate, and both candidates had little time to answers to
questions in detail about an impending recession, a continuing war, the costs of
immigration and medical care that doesn’t meet the needs of our citizens.
So who’s to blame for this? The media owners certainly. The Wall Street worriers
as well. And some reporters who want neither controversy nor to research
difficult issues. But the public must take its own share of responsibility because if
there is no fact, no truth, no standard and no sense of direction, it will continue
to receive pabulum as opposed to hardy stuff. Many of us will remain as blissful
babies and ill equipped to handle the adult problems we have to face now.