How far we have fallen ...Well, it looks like it’s official. Our national media is a joke. First, it helped the Bush administration hype a war of choice. Then it said little or nothing about their role in using compromised military officials as “objective” news analysts to help sell the war in Iraq. Now our national media has effectively turned its back on President Bush’s Blundering Wars Project.
The NY Times is reporting that our major news media stations are dedicating fewer and fewer minutes per week to the wars in the Middle East. CBS News no longer has a full-time correspondent in Iraq. This after the media was complicit in helping the Bush administration paint Iraq and Afghanistan as important to American history as the Civil War and World War II.
One of the individuals who understood the hypocrisy of our national media and culture was George Carlin, who passed away Sunday. Here’s Carlin after Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl.
“On that Super Bowl broadcast of Janet Jackson’s there was also a commercial about a 4-hour erection. A lot of people were saying about Janet Jackson, ‘How do I explain to my kids? We’re a little family, we watched it together ...’ And, well, what did you say about the other thing? These are convenient targets.”
Speaking of convenient targets, ABC’s war correspondent Terry McCarthy explained that one of the reasons the national media focuses on banalities is that bringing up Baghdad at a dinner party is “a conversation killer.”
So, that's it? Our national media has been reduced to little more than a profitable instrument that focuses on empty “convenience” and what makes us comfortable. Great.
But don’t forget your flag pin.
- Mark
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