The Young Turks

I do not wish to put words in the brilliant Gore Vidal's mouth, but the genius of the conspiracy in the media is such that, of course Jayar Jackson doesn't want to intentionally promote GE agenda; however, the media system, as it has been commercially constructed, forces honest people to abide by the format that limits conversation.

If there is anyone I should not paraphrase, it's Noam Chomsky.  Even so, Noam Chomsky once talked about the sound bite format of television "news."  When participating in an interview, he said, you have to adhere to one of two (or a small number of) opposing views or else they will not invite you back because introducing a controversial view requires explanation, since people can't just nod along, recognizing a familiar sound bite.  It's not fast enough, and it's confusing, as far as they are concerned, and it's not good television.

This need to be good television is only prevalent because of media commercialization.  Like the need to reduce complex analysis to sound bites, the need for commercials cuts conversation short.  Both are symptoms of a popularly unfavorable system that is designed to sell sell sell.

So the sound bite for this analysis would be: I think Mr. Vidal was referring to the commercialized media system, not people's individual views.
 
At the risk of being long-winded (even now I feel the pressure of making my point as quickly as possible), I will make a final point.  The Young Turks should not have to go to commercial to pay the bills.  There are two kinds of liberty - positive and negative.  The freedom from and the freedom to.  Political author Lance Bennett advocates a government that subsidizes media financially and simultaneously restrains itself from trying to control the content.  In this way, media would be free.  It seems impossible, but I think that's only because we've been living in a commercialized media system for so very long.  

I, for one, am sick of it.