When my students asked me during this past election cycle what most influenced the presidential race, my answer was swift: celebrity, media, and university professors.Controlling what we see, what we hear, and what we think, Hollywood, media, and university elites command our attention on all things political.
Before I can collect my personal email, I must wade through the latest celebrity surf. The current crop of pop idols declares their personal point of view on all things. If the famous faces have culturally acceptable attitudes about who should make decisions in Washington, well, I’m told that too. If Julia Roberts or George Clooney or Whoopie Goldberg declare their allegiance for a certain candidate we must believe them because they are on TV. Celebrities are secure in their cultural prestige and ballooning bank accounts. My question? Why listen to celebrities about national politics when they are so out of touch with the realities of life in which the rest of us live?
For journalists, reality is what they make it. Journalism is no longer about facts, but about interpretation of the facts. Watching CBS or reading CNN on the net or listening to National Public Radio Americans are given one side of any given story. And often, stories that matter, are stories left out. It is about time we question the questioners who refuse questioning news stories that should have been questioned. Where were the questions about Philadelphia voters intimidated at the polls in the 2008 elections? Why do a group of liberal reporters get to keep their jobs when we find out they intentionally slanted stories in the 2008 presidential elections? Where are the hard questions from The New York Times over the past two years which appeared daily during the last administration? My question? Why listen to media who only tell one side of the story?
Story is a popular concept on university campuses. Professors tells us to listen to everyone’s experience; that is, until those stories don’t match the prof’s position. In days gone by colleges were open-minded places where all political points of view were heard. Now university classrooms tend to resemble an assembly line where machine presses imprint certain agendas. Unless young minds are taught how to think before they reach college they will be taught what to think while in college. My question? Why are profs who are supposedly committed to open-mindedness so closed to views counter to their own?
If I’m going to listen to other peoples’ point of view on anything it won’t be because they are on TV, or brow beating me into journalistic submission, or because they stand behind a lectern at a university. When it comes to influencers in Hollywood, media, and university, I have an idea: let’s tune them out and turn them off. For Moody Radio, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.
Mark makes sure to read everyone, especially those with whom he disagrees. To be aired on Moody Radio, Fall, 2010.
Mark,
Excellent article especially on the decline of open-mindedness at our universities. Our universities should provide a forum for the discussion of all political ideas so their student’s beliefs may be refined and strengthened. Our universites should also be educating our student’s as to how our constitutional/political system provides and protects this intellectual freedom. One can better support their respective beliefs when they more fully understand the arguments (and the weaknesses) of the opposing side.
Bob