Kill Someone Else’s TV–For Democracy!
At the time of this writing, the latest post on Making Light is called “Because one of the people she was learning how to hate was me.” That, in turn, is a quote from an article by Rick Perlstein called “Fox: Time to Fight Back,” and it’s an impassioned wake-up call. It’s about something that’s certainly not news, but something whose implications rational people shouldn’t be complicit about, something which can be summed up in one sentence, which I’m gonna give a paragraph of its own so that it can’t be overlooked:
The propagandistic disinformation industry, and the participation in it of Fox News especially, is not only undermining democracy; it’s tearing families apart.
OK, that could have been two sentences. I admit, I’m a longwinded so-n-so. But. Point stands: Democracy stands on the strength of the marketplace of ideas, “the truth will out,” the dynamics of debate among an informed populace. It falls down when those in power make sure that the populace is consistently lied to. How can anyone make informed decisions when they aren’t getting real data? They can’t. They elect a government that represents not the people but the lie.
And the tearing apart of families thing? That happens when some people don’t buy the lies–and get ostracized by their families for it.
“Because one of the people she was learning to hate was me.”
Reflect, for a minute, on who America’s grandparents are being taught to hate: Americans who do what Americans are supposed to do, what our founders implored us to do: debate vigorously and in the open, the meaning of the public good. They used to call these people “citizens.” They’re “like the Nazi Party,” Bill O’Reilly says. They are you and me.
Rick Perlstein goes on to exhort us, those who blog as well as those who don’t, to join the “Fox Attacker” campaign and bring pressure to bear on that so-called news outlet in response to the lies they spread.
Which is a great idea, which is why I thought I’d pass it along. But what about all those times when we’re force-fed Faux News via TVs at airport terminals, auto mechanic waiting rooms, and hospital lobbies? That, my friends, is a question that the TV B Gone can answer!
Go get you some!
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Oooh! The ninja remote! Also doubleplus good! *want*