Alright Amos, I know I went off on a tear ,but not specifically aimed at you . but at broad-brush generalizations of media journalism summed up by statements like the one that you just happened to express ;

(quote) " I was talking about the overall decay of mass-media-driven journalism."

Well , Duh ,...Yeah, so what else is new? Commercial driven mass media destroys everything it touches. Look at Sports ,movies , you name it. It's easy to rant at the obvious, but to then "suggest" that therefore TV as a legitimate source of knowledge is a complete write-off is just plain wrong and I just had to speak up for C-Span because it is the absolute antithesis of what you and countless others rave at.

I guess my position is "Stop beating a dead horse bitching at the obvious" because the alternatives are thriving and C-Span is the best mass-media source there is *bar none* . That is why i started out by calling it the *bright shining exception* that puts the lie to dismissing TV as if all its *news* ever is would be this mass media driven journalism.

Just presenting a solution into the mix instead of letting it go unmentioned. You may still not be interested , but others reading this thread might give it a try and see for themselves in psite of the now tired old argument about *all* mass media news makes TV not worth the effort. Sorry ,but that just ain't true anymore and I guess I'm more about spreading a little more light rather than just cursing the obvious darkness.

(quote) "Thanks for dictating my spiritual traditions, too, while you were shooting off your mouth. Maybe your own was out of the room when they were cranking out the humility part? "

OK, I ruffled some feathers climbing on my soapbox and my apologies, but humility has nuttin' to do with it. I rather rashly was trying to make the case that shutting oneself off from what's genuinely good because they've resigned themselves that the source is all bad is a wrong signal to send out and then perpetuate.

There's a lot going on in the world and if you're one of those who can't stand this or that media commnetator's *spin* then what's wrong with advocating one go to the source, hear *all* of what they actually said *in context*, really hear the counter points, and then one can make up their own mind .

I dunno. After the 2nd Oil Shock of 1989 I woke up to the fact that what I don't know *can* hurt me and now that we are well into Cold War II there's just too much available on alternative news that just does not get into print.

Anyway , sorry for the ruffled feathers. It's Savanarola-style hyperbole meant to make the point stick I s'pose.