Everywhere I go, as much as I can, I listen to National Public Radio. It's an oasis of clear-headed intelligence. Carefully, patiently, it presents programming designed to make me feel just a little better equipped to reenter the world of uproar.-Roger Ebert, on his blog, touting NPR as the true "voice of America."
I've written before about the disintegration of journalism, of the lowered standards everywhere in today's media. As a nation we once said, give us the facts and we'll make up our own minds. Now we say, spare us the facts and make up our minds for us. We have grown impatient, and the national attention span shrinks until even a 10-minute video on YouTube can seem unendurable. Nuggets of celeb gossip distract us on our way to oblivion. Studies document the way the internet is fragmenting our minds.
When they're not shouting, some of the voices on talk radio's left are pretty intelligent as well: Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Stephanie Miller. Karel? That amateur is a bitter, tired queen, but that's another story for another post.
But Ebert nails it. In fact, I think he gives Americans more credit than they deserve. A 10-minute attention span? Try five minutes, and steadily decreasing. The dumbing down of America continues.
