Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

late-night thoughts about democracy S 61
the people and crowds can make bad decisions, including ones that
would paradoxically destroy democracy. Foolish people, in other
words, can wreck even the best possible political system, while
people with more foresight and public spirit can make a lesser
system work well. There is no simple remedy for public apathy,
carelessness, ignorance, or meanness, but there is a steep price to
be paid if such qualities become the national character. As Thomas
Jefferson put it, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a
state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
The founders, accordingly, placed their bets on an informed public,
hoping “to inform their discretion by education,” as Jefferson put
it. Freedom of the press, accordingly, was particularly important
for the authors of the Constitution. Without accurate information
or the means to acquire it, in James Madison’s words, political
life would degenerate into “a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
Whether or not we have reached the level of farce or tragedy, it
is clear that the press is no longer the alert watchman it once may
have been and that it no longer plays the role the founders thought
necessary for a healthy democracy. With a few exceptions, such
as the McClatchy papers, intrepid reporters like Seymour Hersh,
and columnists like Frank Rich, the late Molly Ivins, and Paul
Krugman, the mainstream media and television news covered itself
in ignominy in recent years, seldom challenging government statements
regarding the decisions to launch the war on Iraq, violate
the law by using torture, suspend the right of habeas corpus, and
illegally spy on its own citizens. 8
Part of the reason for the poor performance of the American
press can be found in the increasing centralization of the media.
In the fi rst edition of Media Monopoly in 1983, Ben Bagdikian
lamented that we were down to 50 major media outlets. When
he wrote the updated version in 2005, the number had dropped
to fi ve, one of which is Fox News. Serious news and investigative
reporting have been sacrifi ced in the competition for market
share in an increasingly centralized market. When the Millennium