We just hit a new high on the national stupidmeter
Gresham's Law, in monetary studies, is the tendency of bad money to drive out good. When potentates start debasing their currencies, people hoard the coins with high precious-metal content and spend the bad stuff. Coins laced with lead and copper take over the money supply.
There is a similar dynamic going on in media. As platforms proliferate, crap news is driving out legitimate news. It started when Time magazine started its "People" section. It expanded when Time turned "People" into a whole magazine. It expanded again with reality TV, Gawker, Kate Gosselin etc. Now it has reached a new high. Today's New York Times -- the sober newspaper of record, the Gray Lady! -- has published this headline and subhed on its home page:
Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012 Scientists say not to worry about predictions based on the Mayan calendar that the world will end soon.
On the contrary. This seems to be a powerful sign that the world is indeed ending.
Comments
In our house, the History Channel is called the Nostrodamus Channel and National Geographic Channel is called the Chupacabra Channel.
The Most Stupid Show Ever prize, however, goes to the the Fox "documentary" about fake moon landings. Definitely a part the of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy to undermine America's faith in government.
Posted by: MikeA | November 17, 2009 1:29 PM
Case in point - the Sun keeps a blog on pro wrestling.
Andrew -- Yeah, it's true. Nobody's immune. I think I blogged once about Paula Abdul! JH
Posted by: Andrew | November 18, 2009 1:08 AM
The Times has been publishing Tom "Suck on this" Friedman and that petty cat Maureen Dowd for years now. They were the paper that pushed the Whitewater affair, which resulted in no convictions, and was a lot of hot air from the beginning. They were the paper that ran all those cozy stories by Judith Miller about the mighty (and wholly imaginary) arsenal in Iraq. They had Jayson Blair, armchair journalist, on staff.
Why would you expect quality?
Posted by: Cheap Jim | November 19, 2009 8:51 AM