Posted on 09/30/2003 11:13:10 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
I don't often watch the weekend talk shows.
When I do, I'm usually shocked by what passes as conventional wisdom.
It's as if some of the pundits on these shows spend the week in a sound-proof, thought-proof room, then are programmed with inanities 15 minutes before the red light goes on.
There's no escaping it.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and, yes, Fox, too.
Let me give you just one example from this past weekend.
On Saturday, I listened in amazement to Jane Hall of American University say the following on "Fox News Watch" in explaining why she thought the U.S. press was pro-war: "There's a point about balance, but I would like to say, you know, what about – is there any complicity on the part of people who said this is going to be a – quote – 'cake walk,' who said we know what we're doing and who have no plans for getting out of there. I mean did they bear any responsibility or are we just going to blame the media?"
I don't know who told Jane Hall the war was going to be a "cakewalk." I'm sure someone did. And I'm certain they deserve to be spanked. But I have searched endlessly through LexisNexis for even one responsible elected official or member of the press who used the term and could find nary a one.
That's always the tip-off. If they don't name names, that's because there are none to name.
While I couldn't find anyone who actually predicted a "cakewalk" in either Iraq or Afghanistan, I did, however, find dozens of people, like Jane Hall, denouncing those unnamed, disembodied yokels who predicted a "cakewalk."
Jane Hall, I take it, is supposed to be one of the left-leaning members of the "fair and balanced" model on this media show about the media. But she was topped by right-wing conservative Cal Thomas who offered this whopper in a little history lesson on terrorism and the media.
"We know that Osama bin Laden watched the movie, 'Blackhawk Down.'" asserted Thomas. "That had some influence on him in his belief that Americans would cut and run. So the media plays a game for and against both sides. It can be used by our enemies if they portray that the American will is crumbling to stiffen their backbone."
Hmmm. Interesting idea that bin Laden watched "Blackhawk Down."
I wonder which Afghan cave bin Laden watched it from.
Thomas made this statement so confidently that one would be tempted to believe there must be at least some truth in it. There's just one little problem, however: "Blackhawk Down" was released December 2001. It could hardly have factored into bin Laden's terrorist plans Sept. 11, 2001 – unless he managed to get a very early preview.
I don't mean to pick on Fox or Hall or Thomas. The truth is, they all do it. It's nothing but a bunch of hot air on these talking-head shows. Many words are offered on each of these shows – they just don't mean all that much. I hope Marshall McLuhan was right and the medium is the message, because there's no other message in the medium, as far as I can tell.
Am I being too hard on TV news? Not at all. If it had any substance, I might. It's very difficult to hit JELL-O solidly.
Television is good when there's breaking news that requires visual imagery, when cameras are present. What the age of 24-hour cable has taught us is that those times are actually few and far between. The rest of the time, we watch a bunch of chattering magpies.
Except that magpies make more sense.
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