[ale] Mapathon?

[tfreeman]

On 10/14/2009 11:40:17 AM, david w. millians wrote:
> 
> Jeff Lightner wrote:
> > Because US news is more about who is ahead on American Idol than
> > anything meaningful.
> > 
> > We have a strong anti-evolution movement, talking heads on the 
> radio
> > that give opinions rather than news and TV news that talks mainly
> about
> > entertainment gossip.   It appears that somewhere along the line
> someone
> > decided that if "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" then it
> > follows that a lot of knowledge is extremely dangerous and should 
> be
> > avoided at all costs.
> 
> In the words of pogo, 'we have met the enemy and he is us.'
> 
> They're selling ads to pay for their costs. Ads only sell when people 
> watch. People only watch what interests them. Ergo...
> 
> I'm not disagreeing with you, mind you. I'm just saying that if you 
> don't think something like the Beeb is useful, then you get what 
> everybody pays for. And paraphrased from MiB, persons may be smart,
> but 
> people are willing to be entertained and hoodwinked.
> 
> Re: news. (I have a journalism background.) Every so often, somebody 
> who's low in the ratings decides that they need to do 'happy news'
> since 
> when you do polling, everybody says that there's too munch violence
> and 
> destruction on local news. And they get slaughtered in the ratings -
> pun 
> not really intended - by 'if it bleeds it leads' news programs.
> 
> So... the market doesn't always give what's "best" but it does give
> what 
> sells. The two are sadly not as congruent as they should be.
> 
> It's the free market at work. This is usually what most computer
> people 
> want, in theory, if you look at political orientation charts. YMMV.
> 
> /wishes we DID have something like the beeb
> //in spite of libertarian prefs.

That is about as good an analysis as I have seen to date. Thanks.