People may want to chime in and perhaps also educate other readers about Unitarian Universalism on alternet.org (registration required).
Editor Joshua Holland asks Did Right-Wing Shock Jocks Motivate Knoxville Killer?
People may want to chime in and perhaps also educate other readers about Unitarian Universalism on alternet.org (registration required).
Editor Joshua Holland asks Did Right-Wing Shock Jocks Motivate Knoxville Killer?
July 30, 2008 at 11:36 am |
Essentially, yes. The preaching of divisiveness, war and treachery is a means to incite exactly the behavior we saw on Sunday. I also wrote about here: http://uubuntu.blogspot.com
July 30, 2008 at 12:45 pm |
There have been examples in history, such as in Rwanda, where incitement to murder was the intent. There’s no evidence for that here.
The right wing media machine serves other functions:
- make tons of money (for individual hosts, networks, and businesses who advertise there),
- prop up Republican government,
- defame and scapegoat others (for sport or with motives),
- provide ‘entertainment’ by catering to people’s lower instincts.
Read David Brook: The Republican Noise Machine: Right Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy. (Don’t mistake him for Brooks, the columnist). David Brook was part of that machine and got out. He can prove his points. In addition, there are several players who openly told exactly what they’re doing, why it works, and what they try to achieve. They occasionally brag about it.
What donors on the left have failed to comprehend is that mass media are a numbers game (duh!). The propaganda tools used by the right have been honed to a science. Mass mailing king Michael Viguerie can give you a formula for what amount of input will generate what amount of resonance. And the psychology used by wealth gospel preachers and their ilk works on most people.
I remember seeing a copy of a broadcast trade journal while working at a radio station that featured an article how Limbaugh was celebrated and decorated at the annual broadcasters conference, simply because he was such a market force. Advertizers go where the numbers are, and they don’t give a hoot.
Progressives need a media strategy. But while Evangelicals gobble up radio station licenses like a hoover, neither the UUA nor the Quakers have anything at all on the air. We could use a consortium of progressive organizations taking on such a strategy. I’ve always wondered why people are content producing events for a few dozen people when they could reach tens of thousands. I think there’s no excuse for ceding the big arena to right wing corporate scum.
We have to get on the ball. Soon you’ll be able to tune in to internet radio driving cross country. Will we be able to provide anything worth listening?
I guess I’ll have to make this a separate post at some time.