Eric Shaw Quinn

Somebody attacked a Muslim cab driver in New York this week.
The attacker’s motives are unclear. The reason it’s unclear is because of the irresponsible hate and fear mongering of the Foxpublicans and right wingnuts over a local real estate development zoning issue in lower Manhattan. It’s also unclear because the main stream and lefty pinko media cannot seem to stop expressing their outrage and moral indignation over the Foxpublican’s hate baiting.
To both groups may I offer a suggestion:
Shut up, SHUT up, shut UP!
I know many mourn the slow agonizing death of journalism. News has become an entertainment medium. It really always was. The purpose of TV news is to deliver you to their advertisers. The same is true of newspapers, magazines, radio, the lot. The reason they count the numbers in the audience is so they can charge their advertisers more. Right? My question is, how do you go about building those numbers?
It seems that rather than trying harder to do a better job or reporting the news more thoroughly and more accurately, the “Oldsmedia” has opted for a different, less nuanced strategy.
The scam was born in Hollywood, always trend setters in the world of entertainment. The “Oldcasters” who’ve taken the place of journalists and reporters adapted it to their own purposes.
The essence of the strategy is this: They do or say ANYTHING to get your attention.
That’s it.
In Hollywood, would-be-celebrities with large or noteworthy genitals make sex tapes that “accidentally” get “leaked” on the interweb and presto, they’re stars. At least until the next big one gets taped and posted.
Since no one wants to see Glenn Beck so much as take off his Christmas Sweater let alone any network or cable anchors cavorting naked in a suite at the St. Regis, they’ve refined the process. It’s called “he did it.” (Okay, maybe refined isn’t the right word here.) You remember this game from the playground in third grade. It goes like this. The Foxpublicans say something egregious and then everyone picks a side. The MSNBCemorats offer an opinion or go on the attack. The right wingnuts go bananas. Meanwhile, the CNNambulists impartially play the video of all of it every hour until somebody stabs a cab driver.
Then everyone yells: “He did it.” Remember?
It’s one things for no-talent plastic surgerites and celebutards to post photos of their big wang doodles and bodacious tatas. We have a pretty good idea where that leads. But when one claims to be reporting the news there is a point where it stops being freedom of speech and becomes yelling fire in the proverbial theatre. Doesn’t anyone remember that old caveat to the first amendment promise of free speech?
Bill O’Reily relentlessly attacks Dr. George Tiller on his program until some lunatic murders the doctor at church.
Tim McVeigh blows up a government building in Oklahoma City and the media makes him internationally famous. One year and a day later, two high school seniors from good homes in Littleton, Colorado opened fire on their fellow students at Columbine High School.
The government institutionalizes a policy of discrimination against gays in the military in 1993. Attacks against gays go up annually and by 1998 Matt Sheppard was tied to a fence, dying.
Prop H8 passed in a media feeding frenzy in 2008. In 2009 hate crime attacks against gay people went up dramatically but so did attacks on people for their religious beliefs.
I think reporting the news is very important. I think people getting to express their opinion on national television, not so much.
I’m not saying that we should stop. I’m just saying that I think rights come with responsibilities. I have the right to free speech. I also have the responsibility of free speech. I don’t get to yell fire in a crowded theatre. I don’t get to show heavily edited video tapes that produce a false impression and call it news. And I don’t get to use my pulpit to advocate against the right of others to have the same rights as me.
I have the rights of free speech and a responsibility to tell the truth. Not just as I see it, but the actual truth. There is only one set of facts though there are numberless opinions.
I suppose we all have the implicit right to be scoundrels. Right? It’s your network, your church, your cause so you’ve the right to make your own version of patent medicine and sell it to the unsuspecting. But does that imply for others the right to tar and feathers? I don’t think so. That just seems like more of the same game of “he did it.”
I have what I think is a novel idea here.
What if we actually try to be fair and balanced?