We have evolved (or devolved) into a society where rhetoric and soundbites rule the day. And we also largely, get our soundbites from media outlets that support our ideas and ideals and regurgitate those soundbites to people who ideologically share our beliefs. It's a great opportunity for us to feel smart and well-read. But it's when you are challenged by someone who is your ideological opposite that problems tend to arise.
The media, for all its claims of being objective with slogans like "No bias, no bull" and "fair and balanced," never engage in intelligent debate, rather, they feature televised shouting matches where people are generally given 30 seconds or so to express their ideas. And although there are a whole 24 hours of airtime to fill, just when the debate gets doing they're "out of time" or "have to leave it there."
And for all the media outlets and talking heads who dismiss Jon Stewart, he is one of the few (if not the only) media personality having clear and honest debate and trying to get to the bottom of ideological differences. In this three-part video, Stewart interviews Ken Blackwell, author of the new book "Blueprint," whose central thesis is that Obama is a tyrant and abusing the Constitution. As far as I am concerned, these are all fair claims, but cracks begin to appear in the foundation when Blackwell is pushed to provide examples to back up these claims. This is why a talking point without knowing the facts is useless when talking to an audience that you know is going to challenge you. (Blackwell needs to fire his media trainer for not prepping him better!) Certainly, no one (or at least very few people) in The Daily Show's audience were going to buy Blackwell's book, but with the way that videos go viral, he certainly didn't do himself any favors with his appearance.
The bottom line is that rhetoric will always fail unless you do the proper reading and educating to back up your claims. The last thing you want is for people's main takeaway from a conversation with you to be that you have no idea what you're talking about or have been educated by talking heads.
No comments:
Post a Comment