The rise of infotainment and tabloid TV news reflects popular acceptance of the summons to turn news into play — which people are willing to do when they have given up on public life.
Books, Culture & the Arts
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Diary of the American Nightmare
T he Book of Revelations does not say whether the apocalypse will be televised. But if it is, WSVN in Miami will not have to interrupt its regular programming. It’s July 18 — the day of a visit by President Clinton to Miami — and WSVN, the nation’s most notorious tabloid station, is leading its […]
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The Disengaged
David Hackett Fischer’s new book, Paul Revere’s Ride, is a cautionary tale for Democrats who expect their heroes to produce results overnight. The story of Paul Revere has come down to us as a tale of individual daring. In our national memory, he rides through the night single-handedly spreading the alarm about the redcoats to […]
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Only Connect
The New York Times Book (sic) Review for March 6, 1994 ran a feature piece reviewing a CD-ROM. “Microsoft Art Gallery,” an interactive digitized catalog of Britain’s National Gallery collection, won a rave. Just point and click, and you can pull up paintings by artist, period, or genre; you can also get spoken critical commentaries […]
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Imagebusters
Revulsion against television violence offers cheap indignation. Unfortunately, imagebusting does little about the deeper sources of our violent society.
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Hispanic USA
We are witnessing the Hispanization of the United States, not the Americanization of Hispanics.
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Whose Body Politic?
The boundaries between public and private are murkier than ever.
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Talk of the Tube: How To Get Teledemocracy Right
If we are realistic and appropriately modest, television can enhance democratic deliberation.
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Passion, Memory, and Politics, 1992
F rom its founding nearly three years ago, The American Prospect has sought to help reconstruct a plausible and persuasive liberalism. This issue’s cluster of articles concerned with a public investment strategy for economic growth exemplifies that purpose: substantive, detailed thinking about how to solve the nation’s problems, rather than symbolic gestures. Yet, as this […]
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The Fractured Family
Some observers are celebrating post-modern families as a positive break from the traditional form. Others are calling for a restoration. Are those our only choices?