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What about well-meaning clamor?“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader
NOTE: Today is the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.
"Good people" cant speak up if they're given (and believe) a skewed version of events....
ReplyDeleteI'm a (former?) journalist from New Zealand and Australia.... been here in the US for 4 years, not working in the 'industry' right now....
Have to say I'm appalled at the the state of the media here and the apparent complicity in that by journalists....
(Things are marginally better in NZ and OZ - the biggest difference is scale and also perhaps, a stronger streak of independence, contrariness, defiance and stubbornness on the part of the Fourth Estate!)
Anyway, I was a member of a women's peer group association here for a while... plenty of people complaining, but no one doing anything about it... the industry owners aren't going to do anything different because their raison d'etre isnt about the uncovering, reporting and dissemination of information, so isn't it up to journalists to take a stand? Cant see that change will come from any other sector/group...
Amen, Anonymous Kiwi. Essential to a participatory democracy is an informed and engaged electorate. The main obstacle to that in the U.S., I think, is not skewed and incomplete information, which is an artifact of the core culprit: apathy and sloth, among both journalists and the citizenry.
ReplyDeleteRanting,
Ted
Another rant: Did you happen to catch any of the "strident clamor" of some of the pundits at Denver (e.g., Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Keith Olbermann, etc....)? Bodes ill for the campaign, and will surely make the "good people" scurry for cover.
ReplyDeleteSee Jon Stewart, The Daily Show for Wednesday, 8/27: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=183494
Thanks for sending out this Word, Ted. This country has deteriorated so rapidly under the banner of getting along, going along, allowing awful conditions to fester instead of being protested and fixed. Instead of so much "collegiality," we need a lot more rabble rousing! Let's do a slight rewrite of Dylan Thomas....let's not go gently into this dark period in our history. Rage, rage! Here's Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame the media; I don't blame the greedy corporations that take from the poor to give to the rich. I fault the American people; we were so busy amusing ourselves to death that we gave up our role as citizens. Robert Reich, though not perfect, got this right in Supercapitalism.
I took notice of the connection the New York Times made today between the Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech witnesses and Obama's campaign, as this year's commemoration. The connection is that Obama is their "new hope," with obvious potential to be America's first black President. Although it would be unarguably notable, having all walks of America pointing it out when it materializes, I perceived NYT connection to be an odd stretch. That is, until you pointed out that today is the anniversary--maybe I shouldn't admit that I didn't know that. But going in with our class and lectures, I think it's an interesting application, taking an obscure story, tying it to the big public interest in the campaign, and thus giving it home on the front page. Elections AND holiday, with a human interest relation to one another!
ReplyDelete(This is April Larsen)