One has to wonder at what point these loud, bullying, moronic tactics will just fall deaf on the ears of those who hear them. I'm not one to underestimate the ability of many in the general public to continuously slurp up continuous hate-talk (to wit: Ditto heads), but surely even the dimmest of our populace sooner or later hears only the ringing in their ears.

'Course, I've been wrong before....

Has anyone seen this interview with Michael Crichton? It is spot-on, and is in direct agreement with just about everything Glenn has been discussing in recent days regarding the uselessness of the media.

http://www.slate.com/id/2192382/sidebar/2192429/

Here is a particularly poignant tidbit:

"I might add as a personal note that we have been talking about the quality of the media and the quality of information they pass on, but from a broader perspective, the present situation scares the hell out of me. A democracy needs good information. A rapidly changing, highly technological society in a global economy really needs good information. We don't have it. We don't have anything remotely approaching it. On the contrary, we have an increasingly constricted media run by increasingly partisan forces, to the detriment of our society. For example, the tendency of media to lock in a single story day after day, like the Hillary [Clinton in] Bosnia story, effectively prevents a leader from getting any other message out. Even in its decline, the media is all we have, and thanks to Sullivan, it operates entirely free from litigation, or other forms of regulation that might make it more responsive to public needs. Not good."

Interview is here:

is here:

http://www.slate.com/id/2192382/

You said:

"IOW,

Crichton thinks Sullivan is the problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

He's a nutbar."

Having read some of your posts, I would have expected better from you. The Sullivan case has the potential to be abused by both sides of the equation. Just as prior to the case certain groups were abusing the idea by throwing lawsuits in the faces of media organizations for reporting the truth about civil rights abuses, so to can it be abused by irresponsible media people and organizations who use it as a shield to prevent them from being held accountable to the public. It is a matter of time and perspective as to how one views the "rightness" or "wrongness" of Sullivan.

I am not particularly a Crichton fan, nor do I spend time researching his political views or reading his books, but his views as expressed in the article and interview I linked to certainly sound thoughtful, logical, and incredibly similar to the thoughts expressed here by Glenn and many others. They are worth reading, especially coming from another source who's not typically tucked away inside the "lefty blogosphere."

Isn't using negative, ad-hominem labeling by calling Crichton a "nutbar" without any review of the things he actually said just the kind of thing we're trying to avoid here? I think so, and I think you're better than that.

Now, please go dig up some dirt on Crichton to support your view of him as a nutbar, even though that has nothing to do with the point I was making or the one he was making, either. *sigh*

That's interesting information, Annie. I have no real knowledge of his body of work, nor his political leanings. You said what I was trying to say better than I could, which often isn't difficult. Cheers.

The interview with Cohen is absolutely amazing in capturing just a glimpse through the fog of the systemic propaganda campaign being waged on America by the major news organizations. From the inside....where us "NASCAR dads" and "hippie peaceniks" never get to go or see on our own. And he doesn't confine his conclusions to just MSNBC, or Just NBC news. All of the major news organizations are implicated in this interview.

This is the type of interview that should be made available to every journalism student at every college in America.

The issues Cohen raises are absolutely insidious, criminal, and anti-american to their very core.

Just wow.....