Tuesday, 01 May 2012 11:13
By Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co. | Video
Big money and big media have coupled to create a ‘Disney World’
of democracy in which TV shows, televised debates, even news coverage is
being dumbed down, just as the volume is being turned up. The result is
a public certainly more entertained, but less informed and personally
involved than they should be, says Marty Kaplan, director of USC’s
Norman Lear Center and an entertainment industry veteran. Bill Moyers
talks with Kaplan about how taking news out of the journalism box and
placing it in the entertainment box is hurting democracy and allowing
special interest groups to manipulate the system.
“It’s all about combat. If every political issue is [represented
by] combat between two polarized sides, then you get great television
because people are throwing food at each other,” Kaplan tells Moyers.
“And you have an audience that hasn’t a clue at the end of the story,
which is why you’ll hear, ‘Well, we’ll have to leave it there.’”
“The problem is that there’s not that much information out there
if you’re an ordinary citizen. You can ferret it out, but it ought not
be like that in a democracy,” Kaplan says. “Education and journalism
were supposed to, according to our founders, inform our public and make
democracy work.”
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