Comments on: Thoreau was Right About the News

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ironically, jollyblogger recently posted about information overload that keeps him from saying anything. Never knew aporia could be so good!

By: Margaret Romao Toigo

Margaret Romao Toigo — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mr. Drudge, whose articles often read like gossip columns, is more of an entertainer than a news reporter. There seems to be more and more entertainers out there who are pretending to be journalists and pundits these days. But we cannot ignore the fact that such people have large audiences.

We get the media that we ask for and deserve and we are not going to get a better signal to noise ratio until more people demand that news be separated from entertainment. But don’t look for this to happen until the voracious national appetite for gossip and lurid true stories — some people call this “infotainment” — subsides.

All we can really do in the meantime is to employ our personal discretion — as you have outlined in your post — in choosing the sort of news reporting we prefer.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Margaret, I think causal lines are hard to draw. I would argue that technology, coupled with certain economic factors, virtually _demands_ this sort of “infotainment”. What’s more, the type of media we consume actually changes our expectations and whets our appetite for certain forms of communication. Neil Postman makes this point very well in Amusing Ourselves to Death. I recommend the book.