Ignorance in our Public Discourse

Almost all TV is sensationalistic.

I grow so tired of ultra-conservatives always calling the media, "the liberal media." But I also grow so tired of liberals making cracks at radio and Fox news as "those people" with an air of indifference and elitism. Both understandings are stupid, and neither is redeeming our culture.

Take Glenn Beck for example. Time did a cover story on him recently, asking, "Is Glenn Beck bad for America?" From what I can tell, his televised rants are largely populist, incoherent, and fear-mongering. He's also got a new book, and from what I can tell, it also lacks civil and intellectual discourse. It does no one any good to stoke irrational or overblown fears and it does no one any good to disseminate half-truths just to prove one's point. If you have to resort to logical fallacies like ad-hominem to prove your point, then your argument is weak. And it doesn't serve the public any good just to make people mad without knowing why. We have a real healthcare problem in this country, and it does need some kind of federal solution. So let's talk about the merits or demerits of those solutions without getting people in a big heap of irrationality. Yes, Time, Glenn Beck is bad for America.

But let's go to the other side as well. Barack Obama doesn't get a pass. He frequently makes insinuations about "those radio shows" and "those cable TV news shows" such as Beck's to make his point. This is just more ad hominem. No one is dealing with anyone's arguments (well, some are, but it's a rarity), but alluding your political opponent doesn't make your argument stronger, Mr. President. It makes you look like you're stooping low to slam a hack, which just makes you another hack. It also makes me think that you're too obsessed with your press clippings and your public image.

Furthermore, reader, the White House has a website called "Reality Check" where they, among other things, put talking heads on TV again to convince you that they're right, and the other side is wrong. This proliferates more ignorance, and not honest dialogue. Convince me in writing, please. Don't do another press conference, or Joint Session of Congress, or put your administration on video. Besides that, the White House is posing their solutions as facts, when many honest evaluators of the healthcare debate would disagree with these "facts." This is a heavy-handed form of ignorance disbursement.

Almost all TV is sensationalistic and resistant to honest truth searching. So stop talking to me over the airwaves and start convincing me with good arguments, while you consider (among other things in a strong worldview) the value of human life with the understanding of human depravity. That includes you, Glenn Beck and President Obama.