Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to The Unforgiven.

The difference
azstrummer — (archived)

Within the bombastic nature of Olbermann and Maddow I have always sensed that their final goal is to educate and they'd be happy not to bury their opponents but to have them see the light and live among us in peace. Unfortunately ridicule, parody, and shame is a human behavior modification technique and can prove effective. It should never be the first one used but as a parent I can attest to the fact that, once you've tried every other form of carrot and stick, it has surprisingly worked as a last resort.

I've often said it might be a good idea to bring back the whole concept of the stocks along with the crowds testing out their pitching arms with rotten tomatoes. Public humiliation seems cruel but, compared with Mideast practices of cutting off parts of one's bodies to get ethical points across, it's pretty benign.

Olbermann has an obsession with Bill O'Reilly that gets old fast but then you ask yourself, if he wasn't pointing out the idiocy, who would be? Before Keith came along, BillO was getting away with his vicious spew and our idiotic masses were starting to emulate him. When Olbermann takes a shot at him, who he's really blasting is us and to me we as a nation damned well deserve it. Were he to blast the hordes of empowering citizens directly, his show would be in oblivion in a few days. People don't like to be lectured to. Instead Joe Sixpack out there that has cheered along with BillO before on one of his rants gets this little tinge of guilt when his idiocy is made fun of. Slowly but surely the national character changes.

Like them or not ER, I think you'll have to admit that Obama didn't do it alone. My guess is having charismatic shows like Olbermann's and Maddow's helped get Obama over the top even if his own personal style was more temperamental.

One other thing that shows like theirs did for me and many others I know is that it made us feel like we weren't alone in our anger and outrage. To have highly rated national news shows finally shouting that the emperor had no clothes was such a relief to me. Believe me, as a person of your age group that grew up with Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley, I yearn for the days when you could tune in and get the basic droll truth night after night from people you respect. I understand the cringe when even the anchors with similar philosophies to you have to resort to showmanship to get the message across. However, I think that bridge has been crossed and there's no going back. I at least welcome a more even balance of competing opinion.

Art

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