The Donegal Express

The calling of the Rosary
Spanish wine from far away
I’m a free born man of the USA

Name:
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

I am the most wanted man on my island; but I'm not on my island. More's the pity.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

All I know is that this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting.

--Nelson Chaney



CNN woke up and found this out:

when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

What did you expect, CNN? This is all your fault. It's on you, and your buddies in Network News, The New York Times, and most other bastions of traditional media. You've spent the last five eternities drumming into the population's head that government oversight is some sort of Holy Grail. Do people keep trying to "save" you by pushing you back into the ocean when sunbathing? Sue McDonald's and have the Government regulate what gets put into Big Macs. Are your fingers and teeth perfectly color-coordinated a rich shade of yellow? Go get "Big Tobacco", government! You've been all "Ralph Nader" on us for years, touting government intervention as the end-all be-all for any problem.

Now, the cracks are showing in your aura. Dan Rather is about ten seconds away from breaking out some steel ball bearings and babbling about the strawberries to anyone who will listen. Then you guys admit, "We uh...lied about what was going on all these years in Iraq, because we didn't want to lose our swell offices in Baghdad." Then you spent the entire year shilling for John Kerry. Now these kids have remembered that "government regulation is good" mantra you've been preaching.

King Diomedes, meet your horses.

2 Comments:

Blogger RTO Trainer said...

You don't think the schools who have also helped to instill an expectation of censorship and, albeit mild, repression? If school papers have to get approval from the administration, what is the real world lesson being taught?

3:15 PM  
Blogger Der Tommissar said...

Thanks for the post, RTO.

To give you the short answer: No, I don't think that did it at all.

#1. Since teenagers are already in the mindframe of rebelling against "the man", you'd think they'd get ticked about having to get their stories approved by the school. That might be clue one to them that having government control would be annoying.

#2. I honestly can't believe that the type of folks that run the high school newspaper have that big an effect on teenage society. Maybe they can influence the AV club, or the Dungeons and Dragons Society. Maybe.

1:48 PM  

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