A few months ago I was talking to a class about the economics of commercial broadcast news. “Why,” one student wanted to know, was so much of the content so mindlessly bad?” She complained that TV “news” seemed to be much the same these days from city to city: We get pictures of jack-knifed tractor-trailers, of fires, the crimes of the day, the more violent and sexual the better, followed by an interview with an incoherent sobbing relative. We may get a sound bite from a ranting politician. And if we are watching a major-market station with more dollars to invest in “news,” we may even get an “investigation” that shows that cheap hotel bedspreads tend to have germs. However, why is it that if you want any serious discussion about why our schools are failing, or what is happening to people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits, forget it. Okay, so how do I explain all that? Fortunately, I was assisted by a large housefly buzzing around the classroom. Do you see that fly? I said
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