TV has made nation complacent, Gore says

[Snellius]

NASHVILLE - The "quasi-hypnotic influence" of television in America has fostered a complacent nation that is a danger to democracy, former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday.

Gore, speaking on "Media and Democracy" at Middle Tennessee State University, told attendees the decline of newspapers as the country's dominant method of communication leaves average Americans without an outlet for scholarly debate.

"Our democracy is suffering in an age when the dominant medium is not accessible to the average person and does not lend itself most readily to the conveyance of complex ideas about self-governance," Gore said. "Instead it pushes toward a lowest common denominator."

Gore said the results of that inaccessibility are reflected most prominently in the changed priorities of the country's elected officials, who feel that debating important issues is "relatively meaningless today. How do they spend their time instead? Raising money to buy 30-second television commercials."

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_2421025,00.html

[maggrwaggr]

1. the opiate of the masses

I'm glad somebody's pointing this out.

Unfortunately his remarks will never be shown on television ...

[tom_paine]

2. Gore is right, but people won't like him attacking their God

Whom they sit at home nightly and worship in respectful silence...