Al Gore speaks

Wow (again)! Al Gore is five feet away from me; Tipper Gore is six feet to my right. But enough about logistics …

Al says: Thirty second television commercials are the only thing that matters in political discourse today. … There was a time when our political discourse was more vivid and clear and rested on a well-informed citizenry. … The U.S. lived and communicated in press for much of its early history: the public discourse was words in print…. It is television that dominates the flow of information in America. … Americans watch television an average of 4:28.00 a day (but second to Japan at 5 hours!), but a half hour over the international average. … The Internet still does not hold a candle to television. … Television overtook print in 1963 (JFK assassination). … Men like Edward R. Murrow led the profession in raising the bar (that will make George Clooney happy!). … If it’s not on television, it does not exist. … Casualty: the market place of ideas; it effectively does not exist. The public forum has been grossly distorted.

Open and free public debate was essential in America’s earliest decades …

We can see where this is leading, eh WeMedia?