Thursday, January 13, 2005

Tuckered Out

Prepping for a new career
Prep-school pundit Tucker Carlson was more likely done in by Nielsen's ratings than Stewart's rantings. But Does CNN's cancelation of Crossfire really signal that viewers are growing weary of tele-jousting. David Hall thinks so: "Yelling and interupting for show is not the way most families and organizations communicate; it is puzzling why most viewers endured such intellectual vacuity for so long."

Or perhaps the program fell victim to the "Bush administration propaganda machine, lax and sometimes corrupt journalistic practices, and a celebrity culture," which have merged to form an infotainment industry that, according to Frank Rich, separates the public from "anything that might resemble the truth."

Or maybe it's because, more and more of those viewers have turned to Fox News Channel to be pummeled into submission by pundits who have elevated the craft of bloviating to lucrative heights. Or could it be that Crossfire's hosts just didn't shout loud enough. Cheer up Tucker, there's always PBS.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe that most, but not all Americans are neither liberal nor conservative, but in fact moderates who are being influenced more by fear of one thing or another than by ideals or goals.

Bush won the election in spite of doing a poor job, as shown by his low performance approval ratings in public opinion polls both before and after the election. Bush won only because many with conservative religious views on abortion foolishly thought that with Bush they can roll back Roe vs. Wade, which was based on scientific reasoning instead of some moral justification. These religious conservatives were afraid that the chance of that roll back would be gone for a generation if Kerry won because of probable vacancies in the U. S. Supreme Court.

Relatively few people were really pro-Bush or pro-Kerry, no matter what signs they posted. Before winning the Iowa caucus, Kerry's campaign would have died entirely if he hadn't borrowed $6.5 million against his estate to loan to the campaign for lack of really pro-Kerry boosters.

In reality, the Republicans have no more interest in rolling back Roe vs Wade than the Democrats do. Without an anti-abortion stand, the Republican Party is seen as strictly for the rich and nationally opposed to social justice. Republicans would have no chance of staying a majority party because its extremists are truly more extreme and don't even believe in the right of government to exist. Many are closet Libertarians, whose bible is This Bread is Mine. Republicans would also be hurt by conservative Christians who now are anti-abortion but who firmly believe in social justice, particularly the Catholic minority which is a big swing vote.

The far right meets the far left at anarchy. On the right the anarchy is to prevent government controlling one's property. On the far left the anarchy is because we would all treat each other so ideally that formal government would wasteful and could only reduce our freedom.

We are given a choice of the less than moderate right or left only because political primaries don't include all voters. To elect moderates requires that all publicly paid for primaries have everyone vote among all the choices. Only this can prevent domination of government by party loyalists who strive away from moderation to establish an identity different from the other major party.