When we don’t recognize the personal chemistry
of the men and women who bring us our news – their cultural and
political views, their economic pressures, their social ambitions –
then we fail the media by holding them to too low a standard. We also ... fail ourselves by neglecting to think
and act as intelligent citizens.

America was born as a nation of readers; a nation of the printed word. The foundational defenses of our constitutional order, The Federalist Papers,
first appeared as newspaper articles. The 85 essays are remarkable
exercises in political philosophy. They’re done with an intellectual
skill unmatched anywhere in the modern news media. Unf...

read more»

When we don’t recognize the personal chemistry
of the men and women who bring us our news – their cultural and
political views, their economic pressures, their social ambitions –
then we fail the media by holding them to too low a standard. We also ... fail ourselves by neglecting to think
and act as intelligent citizens.

America was born as a nation of readers; a nation of the printed word. The foundational defenses of our constitutional order, The Federalist Papers,
first appeared as newspaper articles. The 85 essays are remarkable
exercises in political philosophy. They’re done with an intellectual
skill unmatched anywhere in the modern news media. Unfortunately, if
they appeared today, few of us might read them. The reason is simple.
Reading requires discipline and mental effort. But for the past 50
years our culture has been shifting away from the printed word to
visual communications, which are much more inclined to sensation and
passive consumption. This has consequences. When a print culture
dies, the ideas, institutions and even habits of public behavior built
on that culture begin to weaken.

This is why it’s so damaging when the mass media
confuse fame with significance. A talk show host like Larry King can
welcome a head of state into his studio one night and a pop star the
next. A news broadcast may give enormous time to a celebrity murder
trial in Los Angeles and then ignore the murder of dozens of religious
believers abroad. Michael Jackson’s death has dwarfed the rest of the
world’s news for a week. By blurring the line between news and
entertainment, between what’s really important and what’s merely
sensational, the media engage in a dumbing-down of public discourse.
They implicitly raise up the trivial and diminish things that really
matter.

America has always had lots of opinionated
journalism. What’s new is that we no longer have a shared
moral consensus to ground our po

This is why it’s so damaging when the mass media
confuse fame with significance. A talk show host like Larry King can
welcome a head of state into his studio one night and a pop star the
next. A news broadcast may give enormous time to a celebrity murder
trial in Los Angeles and then ignore the murder of dozens of religious
believers abroad. Michael Jackson’s death has dwarfed the rest of the
world’s news for a week. By blurring the line between news and
entertainment, between what’s really important and what’s merely
sensational, the media engage in a dumbing-down of public discourse.
They implicitly raise up the trivial and diminish things that really
matter.

...

read more»

This is why it’s so damaging when the mass media
confuse fame with significance. A talk show host like Larry King can
welcome a head of state into his studio one night and a pop star the
next. A news broadcast may give enormous time to a celebrity murder
trial in Los Angeles and then ignore the murder of dozens of religious
believers abroad. Michael Jackson’s death has dwarfed the rest of the
world’s news for a week. By blurring the line between news and
entertainment, between what’s really important and what’s merely
sensational, the media engage in a dumbing-down of public discourse.
They implicitly raise up the trivial and diminish things that really
matter.

Most good journalists know this, and they
don’t like it. But news executives typically justify their selection
of stories by pointing out that, after all, they’re running a business
– and there’s a very big market for the cheesier coverage.

Good article.

Jefferson’s words are striking because their defense of a free press emphasizes that freedom is a means and not an end in itself. Notice what he defines as the purpose of press freedom: the reason and truth needed for self-government. But in our own time, the news establishment – even when discussing serious issues – often seems less interested in reason and truth than in what Christopher Lasch called “ideological gestures;” in other words, sound bites and tribal slogans designed to shape our thought rather than encourage it.


The great Jesuit defender of the American experiment, John Courtney Murray, argued that the natural law – the idea that human nature is hardwired with universal, b...

Jefferson’s words are striking because their defense of a free press emphasizes that freedom is a means and not an end in itself. Notice what he defines as the purpose of press freedom: the reason and truth needed for self-government. But in our own time, the news establishment – even when discussing serious issues – often seems less interested in reason and truth than in what Christopher Lasch called “ideological gestures;” in other words, sound bites and tribal slogans designed to shape our thought rather than encourage it.


The great Jesuit defender of the American experiment, John Courtney Murray, argued that the natural law – the idea that human nature is hardwired with universal, basic understandings of right and wrong – gave all Americans a common language for their democracy, regardless of their creed.


But today our knowledge classes – the people who shape our universities, think tanks, mass media and political party leaderships -- no longer believe in the natural law. In fact, they’re often very fuzzy about what those two words – “human nature” -- even mean. They also tend to distrust religion in general and Christianity in particular. And that has consequences.