> The question is not what O'Reilly and his fellow
> travelers think and feel - they are willing servants,
> their motivations, though probably fascinating, are
> irrelevant. The question is how will the left contend
> in the dominant information space.
Yes indeed. It's high time for leftists to stop sneering about the mass media and how it inevitably destroys minds. It destroys minds as long as no one gets on it to fight back, which is what has been happening since, oh, about 1972, when the best thinkers decided that the mass media were their enemies.
I don't know how much the Moore-O'Reilly set-to in itself changed minds, but over time, such events should begin to alter the maps in the minds of Americans whose views of the world are conditioned by hours and hours of O'Reilly-type crap playing in the background. We also need a lot more incidents like Ms. Heinz Kelly telling the obnoxious columnist to "shove it." The large amount of attention this little contre-temps got was due to more than the fact that the rest of the convention is proving to be a huge snore; it was because so many people were either delighted or consternated to see the blue-state part of the country starting to blow its top and push back. If Cheney can hurl obscenities and not apologize for it, so can we!
For years, the left has said: "Oh, we must raise the level of political debate in this country by taking the highest-tone, most intellectual approach possible. Then everyone will respect us." The result was that they raised the level way above nearly everyone's head. If Kerry can lose some of his dignity and imitate his wife's direct approach, he might really get somewhere.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. -- Attr. to Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile