There has been much comment about Juan Williams and how Fox has handled the story. And how superior we are.
Well, in my view we are not only not superior, but identical, and what we are doing confirms that the media is indeed the message.
How can I say that? Read on below.
What we are saying about Juan Williams is a product of the modern mindless sound bite era, a product of our anger, hatred and laziness, just like our treatment of the Reverend Wright. We are no different from the right. Well, maybe a little, but not in this case.
When Fox went off on Rev. Wright, no one in the media, not Fox or anyone else, bothered to listen to the entire sermon, which was not offensive. He was more or less quoting what some in his community were saying, that is, that we, the US, deserved it. What, Wright asked, are we to do with that feeling? His answer, return to God. I'm not religious so I may not agree, but he is a preacher, that's what they do. The rhetorical tactic that he used was what is sometimes called a "pace and lead." Start with where people are, the pace, agree with, or at least acknowledge that feeling, and lead them to where you want them to go, in this case, a return to God.
What did Juan Williams do? He started with where people, at least some people, and most Fox viewers, are, and agreed... he gets scared too. That's the pace. We get nervous about Muslims on a plane. But then he led to "but we can't act on that racism." That was ignored by the media, at least the left media.
What did Fox do with Wright? Ignore the balance of his sermon and take a bit out of context. What did we do with Williams, ignore the balance of what he was saying and take a bit out of context.
Why? The answer is the same in both cases. Because we, and the right, want to hate, want to be justified in hating. We want an enemy so vile, so evil, that we can be righteous. So we find some statement to justify our hatred and take it out of it's context. We do it, the right does it and the right has worked themselves up to thinking that second amendment remedies may be justified.
We have lost Walter Cronkite. We have lost honest news broker. Why? Because we all listen to our own echo chamber. We are all, both left and right, narcisists who only want to hear ourselves talk... and talk to others who agree with us who will affirm how good we are, how righteous we are.
But the question is, how can narcisists, or the people narcisists elect, govern?
The answer is poorly.
BTW, I posted this as a comment to a previous thread but thought it should be a diary on it's own. Which, I suppose, means I am as much a narcisist as anyone, except for some reason I like the flames I will surely get for this diarly. :-)