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Originally Posted by Cameron Swift
I think it comes down to a complete dumbing down in US culture. I watched a documentary on Netflix recently called Best of Enemies, which portrayed the pundit debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. Two very eloquent pundits going at each other, and it was one of the highest rated programmes of the year. Even when I watch old US chat shows like Dick Cavett on youtube, I'm surprised at how smart they are with interesting discussions on various topics.
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Funny, I watched that same documentary on Sunday. It really is shocking to see genuinely intellectual debate on popular American television. How thing have changed.
However, that documentary did suggest that the very popularity of the Buckley vs Vidal debates ushered in an era of confrontational punditry. While they were remarkably intelligent and eloquent men, they tore into each other viciously, and I suspect that's what really drove the ratings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Swift
Now, everybody in the media panders to the lowest of the low intellectually and everybody suffers for it. And with increasingly vocal idiots having their voices heard on social media, politicians have begun pandering to the nation's dumbest ideas.
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It's not just a media thing. Basically, the 60s and 70s saw a cultural turn away from authority in the West. It became cool in the rich democracies to champion everyone who challenged authority and traditional norms, and so the elites - political, academic, social - were discredited. This new liberalism dovetailed nicely with American populism, where the wisdom of the common man is held in higher regard than the artist or intellectual.
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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
The American people don't want this, they just have no choice in the matter.
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I disagree. Americans can always watch PBS if they want sober news that doesn't insult the intelligence of its audience. How many do?
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Originally Posted by nik-
I don't see the problem with forcing news channels to report news and not pass off opinion as news.
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But most people prefer opinions to news. Just look at the top hits on any news website. And where do you draw the line? I get most of my news from CBC, but their interviews betray a strong bias on a whole host of issues. "Just the facts, m'am," is an abstract ideal.