| Much has been written about the Massacre at Virginia Tech, about the murderer and murdered. Almost immediately someone wrote about the difference between our feelings for 32 killed in Blacksburg, Virginia and twice or ten times that number in Baghdad. Much has been written about the sensationalizing of the media, and I will say that Keith Olbermann and his producers have just about sent me back to the Comedy Channel.
There seems to be a notion in the big media corporations like NBC-Universal that they are addressing a huge audience that craves information about Sanjaya and the goings on around Paula Abdul. It is as if the producers of Countdown believe they have an obligation to keep us "well-rounded" in cocktail conversation items, the implication being that politics is too toxic these days to discuss among "civilized" people.
Well, the question of being "civilized" is on the table. Impeachment will soon be on the table, too, btw. James Carroll in the Boston Globe has another in his long series of well-though out essays on our civilization, violence, warfare for its own sake, etc. This one is called "Two Types of Violence, and I heartily recommend it to you.
JB |
