Most of the people who post at Daily Kos have one thing in common: we are newshounds. How many times do you arrive home from work, and your significant other says, "Did you hear that Senator so-and-so..." and before he/she finishes the sentence, you say, "Yep, heard that on NPR on the way home."
"How about the shooting--"
"Yes, saw it on Google at work (I was working, honest!)."
As my children frequently lament, "I can never tell you anything you don't already know." My father used to call me Claven (as in Cliff).
My boyfriend's brother is young (early 20s), very bright, but not especially political. He moved to Los Angeles over the summer. As an experiment, I asked my boyfriend to inquire if he had heard of Orly Taitz.
"I'm not going to ask him that," he said. "That's insulting his intelligence."
I wheedled, he asked. His brother had not heard of Orly Taitz.
"Ask him if he has heard of the 'birthers,'" I said.
"No way. That really would be offensive," he said.
"That's what you said last time," I pointed out.
He asked; the answer was no. He'd never heard of Kos either.
We at Kos constitute a microcosm or perhaps a subculture. In some ways, we are the inverse of the Freepers, but I believe we are an even more exclusive club.
While they know everything Beck, Hannity, or O'Reilly has to say, they could not tell you what Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or Senator Schumer said on such and such a day. We know it all--left and right.
In fact, we are so intimately acquainted with the talking heads, we have coined nicknames for them. Does the average American really know who "Tweety" is?
I think we sometimes forget that our absorption with news, politics, and current or world affairs is not mainstream. We find ourselves stunned when polls show a reasonably large percentage of self-identified Democrats considers Fox "News" to be trustworthy or refers to Glenn Beck as "funny" instead of "scary."
When you discover people you work with don't even know that Sarah Palin has a book out or that Levi Johnston posed for Playgirl (the easy stuff), let alone that there's a world meeting on climate change going on right now, you wonder if they have been vacationing somewhere without cable or even basic television reception. But no, they can tell you everything that happened on Desperate Housewives that week.
You ask, "So what do you think of the public option?" and they reply, "Option to do what?" You start to explain, and they nod politely and glance furtively at the door.
We like to pretend that it is only conservatives who don't know things, but the truth is there are a lot of liberals who don't know things, too. The difference is that even the conservatives who consider themselves informed didn't notice when Fox replaced Iraq with Egypt. We would have noticed immediately.
It makes you realize why we make so little progress on climate change, human rights, and healthcare. So many people are so complacent about everything as long as their own lives are running smoothly, which is why the media focuses on sensationalism; the only way to get their attention is to shock them.
It's why the news is filled with stories about Tiger Woods and who insulted who at Copenhagen instead of the substance of what is being said. Our news media is an embarrassment.
Are we responsible for the media we have today or are they media responsible for us? Have we forced them to dumb themselves down or have they been feeding us so much pablum that they are responsible for our overall idiocy?
It amazes me that people like Diane Feinstein are trying to pass amendments to constrict the definition of journalist to those very same individuals who are too busy entertaining to do news.
People like Wolf Blitzer or Katie Couric or Shepherd Smith are not journalists. They are product spokespeople. They don't investigate anything or analyze anything. They read off teleprompters and have abandoned the days when journalists offered perspectives. They have all coopted the hallmark of "We report, you decide."
If you had a debate between Markos and Katie Couric on current events, Markos would win. Most of us would win. Rachel Maddow might give us all a run for our money (even if she did jump on the pathetic Tiger bandwagon), but when it comes to journalism, we're a lot closer to its origin than these paid "journalists." The ones who are good--who actually know anything--are only trotted out during some sort of international crisis or when nobody is likely to be watching.
I was watching CNN last weekend. Do you want to hear expert analysis of Obama's decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan? You can go to their Website and look for the transcript where they interview a woman who left Afghanistan and sought asylum here. That is their expert. She has no background in military analysis, historical education, or knowledge of the geopolitical. But she has a harrowing story and she lived in Afghanistan, so her perspective must really carry weight.
Fox "News" gives people commentary on decisions like this from Dana Perino--a woman who said she'd never even heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
If we ever hope to change this dreary situation, we must find ways to educate people. We need to push for more responsible journalism, higher quality movies, and smarter politicians--on both sides of the aisle.
We need to insist on better education for our children, and what the schools won't provide, we must step in and offer. Buy Newsweek or Time and leave it in the bathroom. When your kid is "trapped" in there for awhile, he/she will pick it up and thumb through it. We know these aren't great bastions of journalism, but they are light enough for the beginner. Or National Geographic and Discover are also good.
Have family night and watch good movies together that are entertaining but invite discussion and educate. Talk to your kids about what's going on in the world. As many of you already know, it is surprising sometimes what kids will express interest in. I think, too often, we assume it's "above their head" or too boring for them and we never make the effort.
Make sure if your kid grows up to be press secretary, he/she will know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was.
Let's push the borders of our microcosm. We spend a lot of time talking to each other, and we may need to spend a little more time talking to the people who are not part of our choir.
*Revised title courtesy of Blueteam.