Michael Crichton on the denigration of society by the mainstream media, back in 1993 :

There has been a great decline in civility in this country. We have lost the perception that reasonable persons of good will may hold opposing views. Simultaneously, we have lost the ability to address reasoned arguments - to forsake ad hominem characterization, and instead address a different person's arguments. Which is a tragedy, because debate is interesting. It's a form of exploration. But personal attack is merely unpleasant and intimidating. Paradoxically, this decline in civility and good humor, which the press appear to believe is necessary to "get the story," reduces the intensity of our national discourse. Watching British parliamentary debates, I notice that the tradition of saying "the right honorable gentleman" or "my distinguished friend" before hurling an insult does something interesting to the entire process. A civil tone permits more bluntness.

And where can you find this kind of debate in today's media? Not in television, nor in newspapers or magazines. You find it on the computer networks, a place where traditional media are distinctly absent.

So I hope that this era of polarized, junk-food journalism will soon come to an end.

Is it coming to an end now, 17 years later? Or is it in fact getting worse, and spreading deeper into society, hosing shit all over intelligence?

The Full Michael Crichton Story Is Here

Drugs : "A Brief Holiday From Society's Unrelenting Bullshit"

Charlton Brooker warns of a dangerous, powerful, legal drug :

It's perhaps the biggest threat to the nation's mental wellbeing, yet it's freely available on every street – for pennies. The dealers claim it expands the mind and bolsters the intellect: users experience an initial rush of emotion (often euphoria or rage), followed by what they believe is a state of enhanced awareness. Tragically this "awareness" is a delusion. As they grow increasingly detached from reality, heavy users often exhibit impaired decision-making abilities, becoming paranoid, agitated and quick to anger. In extreme cases they've even been known to form mobs and attack people. Technically it's called "a newspaper"...

In its purest form, a newspaper consists of a collection of facts which, in controlled circumstances, can actively improve knowledge. Unfortunately, facts are expensive, so to save costs and drive up sales, unscrupulous dealers often "cut" the basic contents with cheaper material, such as wild opinion, bullshit, empty hysteria, reheated press releases, advertorial padding and photographs of Lady Gaga with her bum hanging out. The hapless user has little or no concept of the toxicity of the end product: they digest the contents in good faith, only to pay the price later when they find themselves raging incoherently in pubs, or – increasingly – on internet messageboards.

(headline quote is taken from Charlton Brooker's story)

The Continuing Death Throes Of American Newspapers

Michael Rivero, of WhatReallyHappened, on why the American newspaper industry is dying :

The newspapers did it to themselves. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the government as it lied us all into pointless and apparently unwinnable wars of conquest against nations that had not actually done anything to deserve being attacked.

This created the phenomenon of the blogs who analyzed the news in an honest and objective way absent from the corporate media and pointed out where the obvious lies were to be found.

If the newspapers had told the TRUTH and only the TRUTH, they would still be profitable and I would happily be doing visual effects for movies. But the corporate media bartered their honor and soul for a free ride on Air Force One, got caught, and now are paying the price.

It is not up to us to regain trust in the corporate news, it is up to them to prove they are worthy of our trust.

They can start by telling the truth about Iran's non-nukes and Israel's very confirmed nuclear weapons arsenal.

Before war breaks out, that is.


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