Danny Schechter
Instead of having a light at the end of the tunnel, we have another train. Brace yourselves for a wreck.
On Friday, July 11, as the world financial markets were quaking because of the threats to two government-linked companies with $5 trillion in mortgages, as the Senate rushed to complete a bailout bill for homeowners that may not bail anyone out, and as the Federal Reserve Bank announced tough new and perhaps irrelevant regulations on a subprime real estate market that has all but disappeared, news outlets were reporting the death of the owner of the Benihana restaurant chain and Larry King was doing another show about UFOs. With a distraction machine working overtime, we seem to be living in a permanent three-ring circus, with a constantly titillating sideshow often sucking up most of the airtime and attention. Britney Spears has replaced the bearded lady from days gone by as the iconic draw. In the central ring of this circus is the political campaign, with its focus only on the evolving Obama/McCain slugfest. Every sound bite, grimace, phrase and gasp is grist for endless punditizing with little in-depth analysis of the issues. More