What do you think about Donklephant's quote of the day?

It’s accurate.

Humans are strange.

If we would remember everything that happened in the past probably we won’t even go to vote. Oblivion sometimes is a remedy, as wrong it may sound.

Sort of agree. The media is sorely messed up, but i don’t see a problem at all with it venting (whether seriously or for ratings or ‘populist’ cred) about the bonuses – so long as other issues are critically explored (which is nonexistent, done psudeo-criticially and thus misleadingly projecting the image of serious socially-vital journalism, or very rare in the mainstream press). It wouldn’t be too bad if they lost their gusto with the bonuses (tho, considering the amount of $ that is basically paid by us, something needs to be done about that), so long as they were equally vigilant about similar if more systemic issues.

There’s plenty to be angry about, though the mainstream media has been focusing more on a version of that outrage (which accepts many problems as being significantly more superficial than they are) and ignoring proactive ways regular folks are organizing to cope with the economy, because those are based on a deeper sense of the origin of that & other (political, ecological, social) problems.

It’s an excellent quote.

What about the Anthrax? It seems to go into oblivion right after there’s a scare. There was another scare when Obama got elected. What happened to that story?

Although I agree about the media’s short attention span and questionable integrity, I am content with them reflecting a nation’s anger and outrage – it’s their duties to report on the mood of the people….as long as they’re not trying to manipulate it.

To Joe Klein I would say that I am far more angry at us Americans for absorbing and proliferating this kind of journalism. They broadcast as they do because we demand it.
Because we all have attention spans like 2 year-olds.

Be angry at the plague, not the dead.

If you think that your media is bad try reading the brittish media, it’s full of either celebraty rubbish and sob stories, or racist right wing propaganda. Not that I really care for media

I think the media is a reflection of our culture, not the arbiter of it. If we get angry, it should be at ourselves.

I agree completely, though the media culture wouldn’t be the same if we, the viewing public, didn’t accept it. (like Marina just posted)

The Century of Self provides a great analysis of this situation.

@Marina Our mainstream media actually, in many significant senses, does not reflect the views & cultures of the majority – in less-rare-than-is-portrayed issues in which there’s rough consensus there which conflicts with some well-vested interests, which are disproportionately favored by that bulk of the press. There’s really no one way influence… the media reflects some aspects our culture, and we in turn reflect the culture disseminated by the media (some reflecting some elements of the media, others reflecting different elements of it).

@fireside I love/adore Adam Curtis’ documentaries… that one, as per usual, was equally fascinating-to-the-extreme and disturbing. There’s other good docs out there which analyize the media’s influence in ways we don’t usually hear about, too (none except Manufacturing Consent come to mind, tho).