| My revelation is tied to the Jackson story as well. I just finished an intro to American history course at school since somehow I overlooked it in the last 7 years as one of my major required classes. While in that class there was a picture on the screen for the powerpoints. It was a copy of a newspaper from 50 years ago.
Looking over that picture which I requested the prof email me, I noticed something was noticeably absent from the front page. There was not one single mention of ANYTHING entertainment related. It was the news. There was a blurb about a senate vote on a bill, there was something about violence at a civil rights demonstration, a message from the governor, short business news. In each of the articles another part was strange to me; the wording seemed neutral, just the facts. The writers didn't seem to have a desire to sway the reader one way or the other with the wording.
I do have to admit that this newpaper was not sensational or entertaining to read, but it made me think. Next week in the morning when you get your paper off your door step, take notice of how many entertainment stories are right there on the front page. Take note of the wording in the articles. I get two newspapers every day, the Gary post and Hammond Times or whatever they're called now. They're jammed full of stories that are not at all relevant to my life. I don't own a TV so I can't comment on newscasters, though I think it would be safe to assume it isn't much different there.
Americans have become entertainment driven. They've lost sense of reality through the destruction of family, values of humanity, moral guidance. The ones that get ahead are the ones that step on their friends, not the ones that are held up by their friends for having sound decision making models and judgement. What we understand to be a typical American was very atypical not too far in history. |