http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004292 Gore Knocks the Idiot Box "The 'quasi-hypnotic influence' of television in America has fostered a complacent nation that is a danger to democracy, former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday," reports the Associated Press: Gore, speaking on "Media and Democracy" at Middle Tennessee State University, told attendees the decline of newspapers as the country's dominant method of communication leaves average Americans without an outlet for scholarly debate. "Our democracy is suffering in an age when the dominant medium is not accessible to the average person and does not lend itself most readily to the conveyance of complex ideas about self-governance," Gore said. "Instead it pushes toward a lowest common denominator." Who ever said Gore was condescending? Fortunately, the ex-veep has a solution: "Gore said a remedy to television's dominance may [be] the Internet, a 'print-based medium that is extremely accessible to the average person.' " That's certainly inventive. _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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