Two Infinities
Wed, 20 Apr 2005
An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal detailed how television stations have run programs where the interviewee appears to be a non-biased evaluator of children's toys when, in fact, he had been paid by the companies selling the toys to mention them. This is objectionable mainly, I think, because broadcast television, at any rate, uses a public resource and consequently has a responsibility to the public to distinguish clearly between news and paid advertisement.
It appears to me this is the same problem encountered when television stations broadcast propoganda from the government as news.
How many other unexamined ideas have slipped into our consciousness as actionable opinions?
posted at: 22:17 | path: | permanent link to this entry
