re: #337 Killgore Trout

I don’t think he’s totally off mark with the corporatism thing. He’s probably a bit reflexively opposed to capitalist entities but there are some legitimate concerns. TV, radio stations, and news papers are all owned by the same handful of mega corporations. Locally owned independent media outlets are almost unheard of. Also the reason why advertiser boycotts can potentially be effective is the same company that buys ad time for soap, also manufactures cars, lighbulbs and snack chips. I don’t like them having so much control over what goes over the public airwaves. Even blog content is largely dominated by a small handful of partisan lobbyists and think tanks.
His larger point about exploiting tribalistic instincts to generate passion and outrage over issues of little importance is pretty spot on.

I might quibble to some extent about whether it is about generating passion and outrage or simply exploiting for profit the passion and outrage that already exists (tribal antipathy is pretty endemic to the species), but I agree. There’s also the problem that most people don’t have interest in deeper investigative reporting. Maybe it’s just more of a chicken/egg kind of situation.