From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Sun Jan 23 2005 - 19:14:23 GMT
On 21 Jan 2005 at 10:11, Platt Holden wrote:
> msh says:
> I believe that in a well-rounded society room will be made for BOTH
> profit-driven and non-profit-driven institutions. So people who
> want commercial saturated and subsidized tv and radio news can get
> it, and those who don't may have some viable alternatives. This
> would of course mean allocating broadcast and cable licenses in a
> way radically different from the bribe-based system currently in
> place. But this is a logistical problem than can be overcome by
> dedicated thinkers, given the freedom to engage in, and act upon,
> an open and high-quality interchange of dynamic ideas.
platt:
Gee, last time I looked my cable service offered over 200 different
channels, not to mention non-commercial channels like PBS, C-Span and
channels reserved by cable companies for educational purposes and
broadcast of local government meetings.
msh asks:
How many of these channels broadcast full-spectrum discussion of
whether or not profit-driven dissemination of information is the
highest quality way of helping the public stay informed?
How many of these channels broadcast full-spectrum discussion of
whether or not profit-driven health care is the highest quality way
of making basic health services available to everybody?
Which of these channels show the real situation on the ground in
Iraq, showing the utter destruction of Falluja, for example, and
reporting the fact that the so-called insurgency is stronger than
ever, that the hostility toward the American occupation is at an all-
time high? Fox News and CNN are part of every cable and satellite
package offered in the US. Why isn't al-Jazeera? As far as I know,
the only way to get al-Jazeera is through one sat tv company,
EchoStar. Why the discrepancy?
Which of your 200 channels show the flag-draped coffins of Americans
killed in Iraq, or even broadcast their burial services. Which
channels are reporting on what happens to American's injured in Iraq,
after they return? Why do you suppose such information is considered
non-newsworthy?
platt:
As for how licenses to broadcast are granted, I can't wait for the
results of your "dedicated thinkers." But before that, I'd like to
know how such thinkers are to be chosen.
msh says:
People are thinkers. Thinkers aren't chosen. The important issue,
one at the heart of this thread, is whether or not entrenched power
is likely to permit action on thoughts which question the authority
of existing power structures. For example, it would be foolish of
profit-driven-instutions, such as the commercial media, to allow the
dissemination of ideas that undermine the notion that the best way to
deliver information is on a for-profit basis. They are not going to
plant the seeds of their own destruction. This makes perfect sense;
and this is why no one who seeks a high-quality understanding of
world affairs will rely solely on the commercial media.
> platt:
> As for the evils of profit-making, what do you have to say in
> response to Pirsig's endorsement of free markets?
msh said:
> As for Pirsig's endorsement of free markets, I agree that in theory
> they are dynamic and therefore good. But since nothing like a free-
> market system exists in reality, the point is moot.
platt:
So Pirsig's comparison of the dynamism of New York city with
socialist cities as "always dull" places was a moot point?
msh says:
NYC has desperate third-world-level poverty existing along side the
neon glitz of the so-called free and dynamic market. By focusing on
the vibrant excitement and ignoring the stagnant misery you wilfully
distort the positive influence of the so-called free market system.
If you are right in thinking that Pirsig would claim that NYC is the
highest quality example of urban life (I don't think you are), then
he, like you, is demonstrating a willful blindness that is the result
of anything but the pursuit of Quality.
Besides, Arlo has provided you with numerous examples of cities,
with a different sense of the value of social equality, that are
anything but dull. Why is his opinion any less important than
Pirsig's?
Best,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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