thecyberbrains.com

My recurring nightmare is back. I’m in front of a large and irritable crowd trying to explain what “news” is. They keep talking about Bill O’Reilly. When I try to clarify the term, they bring up Rachel Maddow and Rush Limbaugh.

I can’t take it! What is the world coming to?

Clyde Bentley

But when the night sweats ended and the morning’s coffee cleared my head, I started to wonder if the world is just coming to new reality I helped create.

Tuesday I attended an interesting lecture by media watchdog Jennifer Pozner. Pozner is the passionate critic of the press who heads Women in Media and News. Although she could use an editor to keep her from wandering off the point, Pozner did a very good job of demonstrating how the talking heads on television have strayed even farther off track by turning the political debate into a trivial discussion of hair-dos, cleavage and how black is black.

I heartily agree with her observation and am an equally passionate advocate of media literacy education to help citizens sort the seed of news from the chaff of commentary. (continue reading…)