The context doesn't matter -- if the media or the opposition can't manage to find a sound bite to lift out of context, they'll just do some creative splicing or bizarre misinterpretation.People are always critical of politicians for being vague or vacuous, but as soon as a candidate says something that's an actual declarative sentence, no matter how mundane or seemingly innocuous ("Rain is wet"), some spinmeister will figure out a way to make it sound like that one statement means the candidate is one step away from either turning the United States into a socialist workers' paradise or handing everything in the country to the Koch brothers and their ilk. Even saying you're for something is now immediately twisted to suggest that you're just blowing smoke while secretly plotting to do the exact opposite. It's a broken system. No wonder so many voters are discovering the joys of apathy, the quiet rebellion of the powerless.
So other than that how are things going?
ReplyDeleteIt all comes down to peoples short attention span. If the dialogue is more than thirty seconds people tend to tune out.
ReplyDeletePeople are accustom now to basing opinions on sound bites. It has become even worse in the new 'technology age.' People like things fed to them quickly - no thought required - twittered: they don't even like taking the time to write or read spelled out words.
Miss-information has always been spread through controlled media but today feeding the public brain pablum has become a public relations art.
the Ol'Buzzard
At this point I figure people have taken sides and nothing is going to change - no matter how damning the revelation.
ReplyDelete