Ed has a good post on Andrew Sullivan, Tom Wolfe, and the role of the press as Proper Victorian Gentleman.
I was particularly struck by Wolfe’s quote, here:
It was to be grief, horror, confusion, shock and sadness, but it was not supposed to be the occasion for any petty bickering. The press assumed the moral tone of a Victorian gentleman.
You know, I actually don’t have a problem if certain publications choose this tone. It takes all kinds — and perhaps, in a more innocent time, there was something attractive about the press taking the rough edges off the news.
It should not be surprising then that the MSM sees itself in the role of government. Well-intended, perhaps, looking out for the good of its constituents. And many constituents want this.
Some of us, however, prefer to know what’s actually going on. Objectivity is myth, so we depend on a variety of POVs in order to fill in the picture. I’ve been doing this for years, comparing and contrasting the BBC, CNN and MSNBC to figure out who’s lying and what the agendas might be.
The problem is the collusion to which Wolfe refers. Diversity is the key. Cable news and talk radio were the beginning of this opening, and now the blogosphere has introduced a liquidity of ideas that we have not previously seen.
The natural state of the world is one of chaos punctuated by calm, not the other way around. Wolfe describes how the various tribes of New York blamed one another for Kennedy’s assassination, and how that very human fact was smoothed right off the front page.
Some would say that the press chose civility. Others, like me, would say that they chose narrative over news.
Free markets of ideas are chaotic and brutal, and also intensely human. We all become richer but the waters are rough.
Some, like the traditional press, prefer a quiet socialism of ideas. Perhaps the MSM is emerging from this long, cold war.
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