I sorta cover that today too .. indirectly, at least.

The Iraq War has been pushed off the news cycles. And that is my number one issue. So that tells you something right there.

I don’t care about Obama’s creepy pastor and I don’t care about CIndy McCain’s beer billions. The press is stupid, it’s not doing its job, and they deserve every cutback, failed advertising sales goal, and drop in circulation/viewership they get.

They need to GET A CLUE.

Jim Voorhies:

If the MSM puts real news on the NEWS, many people will just switch to re-runs of “Lost” or “American Idol”; Seriously. It just seems that a lot of folks do not want to hear the truth about what is going on in Iraq or with our economy, foreign policy or myriad problems we should be making informed decisions about.

I listened to a woman on NPR yesterday who had just authored a book on the “lack of information age”. She said that she was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Like most people she had to walk to her apartment from her office. She stopped in a bar for a cocktail and heard a couple of young, well dressed, men talking about the events of the day.

I’m paraphrasing a bit here (not much):

One of the young men said that this was the first time that this country had been attacked since Pearl Harbor.

The other young man said “What was Pearl Harbor”.

The first young man replied, “It was when the Vietnamese bombed one of our bases and started the the Vietnam War.”.

This same lady said that something like a third of recent college graduates could not find Iraq, Iran, Syria or Israel on a map. Then she added that the countries, on the map, all had their names on them.

Perhaps the financial crises we are currently looking at are a bit more explicable in that light.

Yeah, all those oriental people look alike, I guess. *shakes head*

We have grown ‘conditioned’ to MSM news. I wonder what a local broadcast news hour would look like if they couldn’t report a violent crime, a traffic accident, a sex scandal, something stupid about an entertainment/sports icon, or a natural disaster.

Reporting ‘news’ regarding issues that affect us all requires even more homework than knowing a little geography… that, I fear is an art that is lost to profit-driven rather than information-driven reporting.

/rant

Remember, MSM is a business, not a service, calling, or even a tool of democracy anymore. It’s all about the benjamins. Ain’t capitalism great!

This same lady said that something like a third of recent college graduates could not find Iraq, Iran, Syria or Israel on a map. Then she added that the countries, on the map, all had their names on them.

Democommie, was she just engaging in some hyperbole, or..? ‘Cause, I mean, people my age, we might be coddled, but I’d like to think we’re not so stupid as to not be able to read a map. I don’t think the dumb-youngin’ situation is that dire. Hopefully.

But yeah, the current state of the news media is depressing. Although, all of the coverage of Obama bowling has helped me narrow down my personal choice for president. Bowling ability is of paramount importance for a candidate, obviously.

I heard a report on NPR this afternoonn that Ellen DeGeneres challenged Hillary to show her bowling prowess and Hillary hit a gutterball too,

Alan Jackson had a hit song claiming not to know “the difference in Iraq and Iran.”

jblank:

No, I don’t beleive she was engaging in hyperbole, she sounded absolutely serious about that. It’s not that young people are stupid, far from it–but they use their intellects for a lot of stuff that is more about entertainment than anything else. Not that I didn’t engage in a fair amount of that sort of thing when I was younger.

Jim: Ohh, well, then I guess John McCain gets my support! Thanks for sharing– I was having a really hard time making up my mind before the bowling stories started popping up; I feel much better now. Maybe I should try to find out McCain’s bowling record first, though…

nm: But he’s just a singer of simple songs–he’s not a real political man. I don’t know why you have to pick on him for it.

democommie: I guess my main quibble is with the “the countries, on the map, all had their names on them” part. I can’t believe that any significant number of recent college graduates wouldn’t be able to read the names of countries on a map. Maybe I’m being obtuse and misunderstanding that part, though.

“they use their intellects for a lot of stuff that is more about entertainment than anything else”– I hear you on that. The amount of useless trivia that occupies my time and brain activity instead of worthier, weightier issues would really depress me if I could quantify it. And I don’t want to derail the topic, but I just find it interesting how young people today are thought of as being inordinately preoccupied with shallow and unimportant stuff, when that’s true of most younger generations, if one wishes to generalize. (I don’t necessarily think that you’d disagree, given your last sentence.) I know it’s a matter of degrees, though. But I guess we could all stand to do with a little less mindless entertainment, no matter our age.

Well it’s not mindless entertain that is the problem. It’s mindless entertainment to the exclusion of all else.

If you are paying attention to all that’s going on the in the world you are going to NEED some mindless entertainment every now and then.

I guess my main quibble is with the “the countries, on the map, all had their names on them” part. I can’t believe that any significant number of recent college graduates wouldn’t be able to read the names of countries on a map. Maybe I’m being obtuse and misunderstanding that part, though.

Perhaps it was that they didn’t have a good idea of the region in which they needed to seek out these countries.
.

jblank:

Jefferham Prestonian has it right, I think. I will have to try to google the segment. It was on Sunday, if my memory is correct.

dolphin:
Yeah, that’s a good point. Mindless entertainment definitely has its own purpose, in moderation.

Jeffraham & democommie:
It would still be hard for me to swallow that a big chunk of people who aren’t illiterate couldn’t read the names on a map. But if that’s true–yikes. I’ll try to search for it. Do you remember anything else about the author or her book, dc? I’m interested in what she has to say.

I didn’t hear the broadcast, but I assume it was Susan Jacoby talking about her new book, the Age of American Unreason, in which she examines anti-intellectualism. You know, the idea that a simple person doesn’t need to know about complicated things, that ignorance equals innocence, and that anyone who asks you to compromise your ignorance is sneering at you.

Ah, thank you, nm. I looked up the title, and it sounds really interesting. I’ll have to add it to my reading list.

It would still be hard for me to swallow that a big chunk of people who aren’t illiterate couldn’t read the names on a map. But if that’s true–yikes

I’m betting there was a time limit.
.

Coincidentally, nm, one of the “What do people want” questions in the VW ad I posted about today was one that said a majority believed ignorance should be painful.

Jim, I don’t even know what that means. Ignorance should be painful? There are already painful consequences to ignorance, sometimes to the ignorant one and sometimes to others. I just think ignorance should become educated.

jblank:

I googled NPR for Susan Jacoby and there are some excerpts from the show I heard, but I don’t know what time it aired (the bit I referred to is not in any of the sound bytes I heard). Somebody who’s better at navigating that maze might be able to come up with the whole broadcast.

democommie: I just got home and am starting to listen to the NPR Book Tour podcast episode with Jacoby that I found on iTunes. I came across it this afternoon, but I had to wait for it to download due to my slooow dial-up connection. The particular episode that I’m listening to has Jacoby reading excerpts from her book and also discussing a little bit. Thanks for looking and for getting back to me about it!

jblank:

Great! Please let me know if I am wrong.

democommie: Sorry, this is the first chance I’ve gotten to completely listen to the NPR podcast and comment on it. I’m way behind in the MCB comment time-frame, but I wanted to respond after listening.

What I downloaded must not have been the same exact broadcast as what you heard, as Jacoby didn’t mention the map bit that you quoted– she actually said at one point in her talk that she was going to give some statistics about how little Americans know about math and geography and science, but that she had decided not to for time’s sake. Although, she did mention the following in passing:

2/3 of Americans don’t know what DNA is
1/5 believe that the sun revolves around the earth
2/3 can’t find Iraq on a map

I’d be interested to know where those figures are from, but I guess I don’t necessarily have a hard time believing them. Anyway, thanks for bringing the piece up in the first place. I find the whole thing interesting– questions of just how much importance Americans in general place on being well-informed, in just how much both education and popular culture drive that, and in how to talk about it without coming across as elitist and patronizing.

Holy crap! A fifth think the sun revolves around the earth?

Jim:

Part of me had the reaction you had, and then part of me can reconcile the idea that that’s an accurate representation of Americans. It’s confusing. I don’t want to believe that, but part of me can see how people might get involved in their own little personal spheres and start forgetting what they learned in school and lose any interest in regaining it.

It makes me think of Sherri Shepherd, who, from talk show appearances and guest spots on tv shows I’ve seen, seems like a pretty quick-witted person. And yet, from time to time, you hear that she made some perplexing comment on The View about never thinking about whether the world was flat or about believing that Jesus pre-dated the Greeks and Romans.

Her defense was that instead of worrying about facts, she was focusing her energy on taking care of her family. That’s the only justification I can figure that can account for crazy-sounding statistics like the one you mentioned.

I’m just astounded that both don’t revolve around me. Are we sure about this?

Haha, nice. Maybe there’s a scientific panel out there that can double-check for your sake.