The Liberal Media

I'm not the only one growing disgruntled with the quality of American news. Apparently most young folks have grown to trust as a news source a pair of comedians: Steven Colbert and particularly, according to a Time poll, Jon Stewart. Much as it's real fun to get your news that way, it is a sad commentary on the demise of our culture that journalism is overtaken by entertainment. And I mean that in both senses. In the mainstream media (increasingly owned by a very few huge private corporations) we hear common references to the news world– as "liberal media", which only seems to justify the puppetmasters pulling farther to the right for "balance." But a cursory look to other media outlets around the world (who, need we point out, are less influenced by American politics) looks in comparison pretty darned liberal. Could it be that some secretive leftist conspiracy has overtaken the whole world, or is it more likely that the slow drift of our own American voice is revealed by watching the nearby bank move? It's a serious question.

My main interest is in culture and so I resist writing about politics. But politics, the place where rubber hits road, deeply effects culture. I dream of an open culture where citizens can freely exchange visions of possibilities for our future. That seems like the only way to survive is as a community of equals.  On that phrase pivots much of world politics now. Our age seems to be one of a very few trying to keep from having to share the reigns of power equally. Maybe this is the story of the whole of human civilization, but unlike any time in the past, if we fail now it won't be because we haven't experienced that a better world– such as a democratic one– is in fact possible.