Technology: Fueling Hatred and Misunderstanding

Red Leader. writes "This Thomas Friedman op-ed entitled "Global Village Idiocy" and this article by George Packer, entitled "When Here Sees There," both touch on some interesting observations regarding technology's impact on tolerance and understanding. My favourite quote from Friedman's piece is "the Internet, at its ugliest, is just an open sewer: an electronic conduit for untreated, unfiltered information."" We've previously posted the Packer piece, but combined with other story, I think it's worth a retread.

Comments

Re:NEWS ALERT: Buttons on the TV can change channe

[Archie Steel]

The Bush administration did nothing for Enron because it was too late (therefore too dangerous). However, when you look at the past history of Enron, it is closely entertwined with that of the Bushes. The Republicans are just mad at Clinton because he stole their program. But there's no question that the Bush administration is that of Big Oil - every aspect of the Bush foreign policy is dominated by this: the upcoming Desert Storm sequel, the non-condemnation of (and probable involvment in) the failed Venezuelan coup, Arctic Drilling, the privileged relation with the saudis, the many members of the cabinet who come from Big Oil companies, etc.

BTW, if the media were so liberal, then the liberals wouldn't complain about it being so pro-conservative. The fact is, most media are private corporations, and they follow a pro-corporate bias. For example, NBC never presented news reports of anti-nuclear demonstrations when it was owned by General Electric (who built the motors that powered cruise missiles). Also, a TV network that counts McDonald's as one of its major sponsor would be hard-pressed to run a story critical of McDonald's and risk to lose that account. It's pretty simple, really.

At best, the major media are centrist with a pro-corporate agenda, and at worst (like Fox) they are clearly right-wing. Of course, if you're to the right of them, then you'll find them "liberal", but that's only relative to your own point of view. Bernard Goldberg's book is itself a pretty biased text - for a better-written counterpart (which gives a lot more sources to prove its point), try Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky.