Guest, I think you made your own point. "Network" is still relevant and thought provoking. We don't need another one on this subject; any attempt to produce a "Network" for the '00's would be a pointless exercise.

Social criticism is missing from everyday lives because the media is in the hands of a very few giant corporate entities. No news program on ABC is going to do an expose on the horrid working conditions at Disneyland. The journalists who try find their stories squashed or end up in the unemployment line. CNN is not the least bit interested in giving a fair hearing to the anti-war activists, because war is great for ratings. Networks can't do stories or broadcast commentary on poor nutrition in schools that might offend a major sponsor like Coca-Coca that makes lucrative contracts with elementary schools for exclusive rights to the soda machines in the cafeterias.

In the words of a poet who's name I can never remember,

"As on altar, can it be that ye have wasted inspiration on dead ears,
dulled with the too familiar clank of chains?...
We are not free, doth freedom then consist
in musing with our faces toward the past while petty cares
and crawling interests twist their spider threads about us
Which at last grow strong as iron chains to cramp and bind
in formal narrowness, heart soul and mind?"