www.townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/printdw20041129.shtml
The New York Times--which, like a frightened squid, keeps squirting gushers of ink at Bush-voters--now declares that television remains "far more likely to keep pumping from the deep well of murder, mayhem and transgression than seek diversion along the straight and narrow path."
And somehow the Times is trying to pin the cause for this cultural decline on Bush voters. By adding exit poll numbers to neilson ratings, the newspaper fancies it has come up with Something Quite Profound. "Many Who Voted for 'Values' Still Like Their Television Sin," the newspaper headlined, arguing that "the supposed cultural divide is more like a cultural mind meld." Why? Because "Housewives and "C.S.I." are both blue-and red- state hits. This is supposed to mean something:namely, that "values voters"--that ill defined and slim slice of polling data that, the debunked stroy goes, alone re-elected George W. Bush--are watching sex-and violence- drenched "entertainment" and that this is a paradox. Why, the newspaper wonders, would all those "values voters" become no-values viewers?
It's a faulty premise. Not only does it depend on a zero-sum vision of free will and personality, but also it implies that pulling the lever for" traditional" marriage or agianst abortion eliminates curiosity, boredom, bad taste and maybe even sin from the human condition.
Even more dubious is the evidence. "In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than 2 million households, 'Desperate Housewives' is the top rated show," the newspaper reported. "Nearly 58 percent if the voters in those counties voted for President Bush." Im no statistician, but it would seem that the 42 percent of Atlanta-area voters who didn't go for W. cold also have boosted the smut-in-suburbia hit to the top of the ratings.
But give the Times' its pet theory; lets say Bush voters are "Housewives" fans. What then? That, of course, makes Bush voters frauds and hypocrites. And there's nothing that enlivens a dispirited non- Bush voter more than "evidence" in the "newspaper of record" that Bush voters, particularly "values voters" are frauds and hypocrites.
I marvel at the puny mind that sees in all of literature and film only either-or; that is, two main plot lines: "Joan of Arcadia" ashow that features a 16-year-old girl's encounters with God in different disguises, and "C.S.I.,"a show that features forensics technicians' encounters with different wounds. So much for the human experience.
The New York Times--which, like a frightened squid, keeps squirting gushers of ink at Bush-voters--now declares that television remains "far more likely to keep pumping from the deep well of murder, mayhem and transgression than seek diversion along the straight and narrow path."
And somehow the Times is trying to pin the cause for this cultural decline on Bush voters. By adding exit poll numbers to neilson ratings, the newspaper fancies it has come up with Something Quite Profound. "Many Who Voted for 'Values' Still Like Their Television Sin," the newspaper headlined, arguing that "the supposed cultural divide is more like a cultural mind meld." Why? Because "Housewives and "C.S.I." are both blue-and red- state hits. This is supposed to mean something:namely, that "values voters"--that ill defined and slim slice of polling data that, the debunked stroy goes, alone re-elected George W. Bush--are watching sex-and violence- drenched "entertainment" and that this is a paradox. Why, the newspaper wonders, would all those "values voters" become no-values viewers?
It's a faulty premise. Not only does it depend on a zero-sum vision of free will and personality, but also it implies that pulling the lever for" traditional" marriage or agianst abortion eliminates curiosity, boredom, bad taste and maybe even sin from the human condition.
Even more dubious is the evidence. "In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than 2 million households, 'Desperate Housewives' is the top rated show," the newspaper reported. "Nearly 58 percent if the voters in those counties voted for President Bush." Im no statistician, but it would seem that the 42 percent of Atlanta-area voters who didn't go for W. cold also have boosted the smut-in-suburbia hit to the top of the ratings.
But give the Times' its pet theory; lets say Bush voters are "Housewives" fans. What then? That, of course, makes Bush voters frauds and hypocrites. And there's nothing that enlivens a dispirited non- Bush voter more than "evidence" in the "newspaper of record" that Bush voters, particularly "values voters" are frauds and hypocrites.
I marvel at the puny mind that sees in all of literature and film only either-or; that is, two main plot lines: "Joan of Arcadia" ashow that features a 16-year-old girl's encounters with God in different disguises, and "C.S.I.,"a show that features forensics technicians' encounters with different wounds. So much for the human experience.
Worth a peek!!
