Fit to Print

What’s the story, all the news that’s fit to print, save that now so few of us seem to pay attention to the wholesale value of words and what they truly mean, let alone read, in this age of television. In days gone by long ago, words came from storytellers, first spoken through a glorious oral tradition to let us know of our past and where we came from. Soon, the spoken word gave way to the written word giving a freedom of conscience and consideration that the spoken never did, as from behind closed doors we could choose in dimly lit rooms whether to consume tawdry tales of the Marquis or moral dilemmas from Voltaire, Choice; Where should our minds advance? As technology advanced and the industrial revolution gave birth and rise to the marvels of invention again our focus changed, albeit temporarily to radio – The magic of invisible waves renewing and invigorating the spirit of the oral tradition. Families sat in rooms to listen to the news or stories of the world at war or of mystery and intrigue, our imaginations still active as with our minds eye we still had to create the images of people, places and things that we had no firm knowledge of, or belief that we could ever see. Still challenged by the media that fueled our souls by leaving us wanting and hungry. As history shows us, technology allowed us to become intellectually lazy, as again, invisible waves brought pictures to us of places we would never go, to see things we could never see, save for the images that now confronted our senses, first in black and white, then in colour.

The golden age of that technologies advance brought us presidential debates, the Cuban missile crisis, assassinations and the first step on the moon. Respected veterans of that by gone age like Cronkite, I can only imagine what they would think, as now, from the cradle of civilization, in stark contrast to an age of moderately objective truth I now see Babylon falling again brought to me by talking heads that talk a lot but don’t seem to be using their heads.

Brokaw, speaks of death, destruction and terror, Arnett of failed war plans, Mansbridge of suicide bombers and Entertainment Tonight of embedded reporters fired for not following the rules.

What is the story? Is it any of these? Or all? Or none – Was Pandora’s box opened when we gave our intellectual ability to services whose only job is to keep us dumbfounded and staring at the screen, why you might ask; so GE, GM, NIKE and McDonalds can sell me just one more, anything, as long as I watch and consume.

SDM