Thursday, June 30, 2005
1st Amendment Blues
The many headed beast ... the media. But how to control it? Better yet, how to make it more responsible? The First Amendment puts up many roadblocks to regulating the media. And, in any case, any attempt by the government to regulate the media would be a case of the medicine being worse than the cure.
Competition then? You know, the capitalist cure-all. Unfortuately, we have plently of competition, and the only result has been a race down to the lowest and basest forms of infortainment. We need to elevate the discourse, not lower it.
The answer is an American version of the BBC. A government funded, but independent, news agency. Because it wouldn't rely on ratings, it wouldn't have to live in sound-biteville.
Too bad this will never happen. The Congress doesn't like funding PBS, which I think they give a rusty tin can full of genuine Weimar Republic currency every other year. Can you imagine them funding a full scale professional news agency?
And forget the ideological wars that would result. Before you could say hallelujah, the Christians would have turned the thing into a roadside billboard.
You know, I'm a card-carrying Christian, but listen here -- civic Chrisitianity has already taken down the Roman Empire, and we'll be next if we let these zealots rewrite our history for their own self serving purposes. Turn on your radio dial late at night and give a listen to what these people are saying about what the proper role of religion in government is-- if it doesn't make the hair on your neck stand up and fill your heart with dread, then you don't believe in the value of a secular state.
Amen.
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Competition then? You know, the capitalist cure-all. Unfortuately, we have plently of competition, and the only result has been a race down to the lowest and basest forms of infortainment. We need to elevate the discourse, not lower it.
The answer is an American version of the BBC. A government funded, but independent, news agency. Because it wouldn't rely on ratings, it wouldn't have to live in sound-biteville.
Too bad this will never happen. The Congress doesn't like funding PBS, which I think they give a rusty tin can full of genuine Weimar Republic currency every other year. Can you imagine them funding a full scale professional news agency?
And forget the ideological wars that would result. Before you could say hallelujah, the Christians would have turned the thing into a roadside billboard.
You know, I'm a card-carrying Christian, but listen here -- civic Chrisitianity has already taken down the Roman Empire, and we'll be next if we let these zealots rewrite our history for their own self serving purposes. Turn on your radio dial late at night and give a listen to what these people are saying about what the proper role of religion in government is-- if it doesn't make the hair on your neck stand up and fill your heart with dread, then you don't believe in the value of a secular state.
Amen.
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