Walt, the depth and subject matter of your analysis would surely do credit to Who Magazine.

To study the media writing trivia and the public liking trivia is truly a trivial pursuit.

By focussing on the trivial you yourself are perpetuating the inadequacies of the medio-fascist state continuum.

I salute you!

While they write and talk about superficial things like shoes, toupees and who drinks what, people won't question what is happening to their 'world'. Keep the populace ignorant and you will have no questions to answer. Whilst living in the USA for 3 years I was astounded at the lack of in-depth discussions, reporting and comment. Having returned to Australia 1 year ago, I found to my dismay that this country has fallen into the same superficial trap. Our children are our future and I fear what sort of leaders we are producing if all they can quote are movie star facts (usually made up), breast enlargements, plastic surgery and the like. Plastic fantastic.

It's a Brave New World!

Walt

Thanks for your article.

I must live in another world. I have heard the names of the people you are talking about. I don't have a clue who they are - nor do I care.

Cheers mate
Kay

What a knocker. All those stories are fundamental to the maintenance of Australian Values. How are our kids going to learn how to relate to each other and to Americans if they don't have some role models to emulate ? What do you want us to do - watch & read about boring people doing ordinary things? And how can we live happy lives if we are expected to think about national or international issues outside of the English-speaking world? How can we be happy if someone doesn't tell us what's fashionable to wear, buy, drive, think, eat, drink, hate, like, watch, listen to, ridicule, ignore, collect, throw away, occupy, fight, travel to, and much, much more ?
Henery

Right on Henery

And the Women's Magazine industry would collapse overnight.

No pretty skeletal covergirls anymore and the only highbrow analysis left inside would be Horoscopes. Apologies sisters.. :)

And if us guy's couldn't talk about Warnie's latest triumphs (off the field) we couldn't say nuffink.

Walt has made a fair point here. The media is not interested in keeping us informed. It's business is selling. Scandal sells. Political skullduggery sells. Mostly, sex sells.

U.S. media analysts surveyed domestic television audiences in a study designed to measure what watchers learned from the news. FOX viewers didn't have a clue what was happening around them regarding Iraq, the economy, social security, health issues, and the environment. In fact, what MOST of FOX viewers believed, was demonstrably false. An informed public? Not bloody likely.

That Australia's leading publication is Women's Weekly says much. That our favourite television shows are sport and Australian Idol says even more. Talk about living vicariously.

Plantagenet seems comfortable with the blissful ignorance of a dulled citizenry, where it's that much easier to shape public opinion. Kalweb will never understand why he\she is paying today's prices for petrol (hint: it ain't all Katrina's fault. Now there's a name you'd recognise)

By all means have your distractions - I enjoy following sport as much as the next person. The cult of the instant celebrity (the cult of the moron, as Geldof puts it) has all the depth of wallpaper. And people lap up this stuff?

Get a life!

ahh, bennie, i guess you missed the sarcasm, or was it me? did i imagine it? nah, who needs imagination when you have tv.

Bennie

Just because I don't read nonsense magazines and the dribble contained therein does not mean that I am not aware about what is happening in society.

I do not understand your gross assumption that I would somehow link hurricanine Katrina with rising oil prices.

Frankly, I found your comment towards me quite noxious.

Yes, I have strawberry blond hair and I am female - but I ain't a dumb blond mate.

Cheers
Kay

Mr Brasch is 100% correct.
And there is a way through this. And it takes 1.873 seconds.Turn off the television, and never turn it on again. I have worked in TV, both sides, in a former life, and have not owned one for some 27 years.
Brad who? Gucci what? Sure, at most social gatherings you will have no idea what the majority of folk are arguing about, but you will know how the world works. Big Brother? Important, I dont think so. Consuming for goods is easier than living for experience.

Get a book, get a conversation, get out, get a friend, make love, do anything but passively suck in (mostly) the truly deadly American culture.
Get a life.
Sorry, tuning in is so much easier than turning on.

artistB

Thanks for your post.

I do watch TV (but only Aussie and Brit), and I am an avid radio listener and reader.

I have absolutely no interest in the private life of so-called celebrities. My life with my husband is far too important to get cluttered up with a pile of crap.

Cheers
Kay