FS & Praxis

[James Rovira]

I think  you need to make a distinction between television and American 
mass media in general, though.  I'd say your description of television 
is pretty accurate, but it doesn't necessarily reflect America's print 
culture or, for that matter, internet venues.  Debate against the war 
and American foreign policy is much more alive there.  

Of all forms of media, television is the most expensive.  The biggest 
money is backing it and so it is, almost by default, aligned with 
powerful economic interests.  It also provides the most immediate access 
to the most Americans -- if you want to get out information *now,* 
television is still the best way to do it.  So television, by its 
nature, is the most politically compromised of all forms of American 
mass media.  

It's not the only form of American mass media, however.

Jim

Ralph Dumain wrote:

> As useless as these little pieces of sheetz are, I am prompted to 
> reiterate that the media is virtually totalitarian in a way that is 
> most alarming and demoralizing.  Michael Moore is almost a lone 
> voice.  My main complaint about him is that he is a slob and should 
> make himself more presentable when he appears in public, especially in 
> his own films.  Some other quibbles, to be sure, but he's all we've 
> got.  There are celebrities who oppose the war, of course, and that 
> helps in a celebrity-crazed nation.  I also saw on tonight's news the 
> bruised bodies of protestors engaging in peaceful civil disobedience 
> shot by the police with wooden bullets in Oakland, and this action was 
> defended by Jerry Brown.  But mostly there is the relentless media 
> barrage from all directions: patriotism at baseball games in the 
> sports news, weather forecasts that include weather conditions in 
> Iraq!, vile right-wing talk shows with arrogant, smug parasites like 
> Bill Maher and Dennis Miller, sentimental portraits of soldiers' 
> families, etc etc.  All in all it's a tasteless, unconscionable, 
> nauseating spectacle.  I've never seen anything so vile in my entire 
> life.  And this combined with the proliferation of ever more 
> outrageous "reality" TV programs.  It's the logical outcome of the 
> culture of fascism.  But no, it's not 1930s-style fascism.  It's not 
> even the "friendly fascism" predicted by Bertram Gross in 1980.  It is 
> fascism privatized.  Its media correlate is a manipulated market that 
> cynically deflates obvious contrary evidence and effectively 
> suppresses any serious oppositional perspective.  For lack of a better 
> characterization, I term it "farcical fascism."  Alas, all 
> world-historical events remain tragic, even as farce.
>
> At 12:43 AM 4/9/2003 -0400, bob scheetz wrote:
>
>> ...and today it appears the BLD super-power military has turned to 
>> murdering
>> journalists to preserve its "humanitarian" PR against contradiction, 
>> ...sop
>> in "the only other democracy in the neighborhood".
>> More examples of the systems ability to invert radical critique?  
>> maybe the
>> responsible will be arrested and tried for war crimes?
>
>
>