{"id":497,"date":"2021-03-13T13:37:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T18:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=497"},"modified":"2021-03-13T20:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T01:20:12","slug":"method-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"Method # 2 ??"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is it better to get our news from a newspaper than from television?<\/em> <\/p>\n

There is<\/em> a right answer \u2014 or at least a \u2018two-point\u2019 response (vs. a \u2018one\u2019 or a \u2018zero\u2019). In the dark ages of IQ measurement, such questions found themselves huddled together in a \u2018sub-test\u2019 call Comprehension<\/em>. The intent of these fifteen or so queries was to test an individual\u2019s understanding of social roles, practices, and conventional standards of behaviour \u2014 the \u2018why and how things work\u2019 in our culture. The latter day \u2018down-grading\u2019 of the test itself to \u2018supplementary\u2019 status (read, \u2018optional\u2019) says perhaps a little too much about what\u2019s currently valued.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>What isn\u2019t political nowadays? Timing and sound bites rule. Balance and in-depth examination have been displaced in favour of encapsulated \u2018scoops\u2019, \u2018breaking news\u2019 \u2014 orchestrated to trade on a news cycle\u2019s \u2018treat of the week\u2019; or more properly, treat of the instant. And washed through the filter of political correctness and ratings. The bandwagon has supplanted the orchestra. <\/p>\n

So to Harry and Meghan\u2019s \u2018bombshell\u2019 tell-all with Oprah. It was difficult to miss the carefully crafted, stage-managed, scripted frame that surrounded this \u2018intimate and candid sharing\u2019. And I\u2019m sure that airing the interview on the eve of International Women\u2019s Day, as a jury is being selected in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin (George Floyd\u2019s killer), against the backdrop of BLM was all just some fortuitous accident. Not!<\/em> Oprah didn\u2019t become a billionaire by throwing something against a wall to see what sticks.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to accept that the Americanization of Harry is long since a done deal. This is an incomplete individual who continues to struggle with his menu selections \u2014 as in \u2018Will that be fish or fowl?\u2019 Royal or no? And, as my mom was ever so fond of reminding me, \u2018if you hang around with kids from the South End, it will lead to trouble!\u2019 (Bearing in mind that the \u2018South End\u2019 was five blocks away in our small, southern Ontario border town.) Harry appears to have leapt from adolescence to, well, late adolescence in recent times \u2014 easy pickings for the more world-wise, image-managed folk with clear(er) ideas of what they want, where they\u2019re headed, and how to get there. Harry, sadly has been compelled to make some difficult choices. In the face of a growing awareness that fence-sitting, in aid of having his cake and. . . was not working out. <\/p>\n

Equally, in this \u2018Age of Divisiveness\u2019, simply making a quiet call and getting on with the business of same is not an option. \u2018Herd loyalty\u2019 must be declared, good guys and bad guys named and shamed, and a public spin spun. And with such widely aired and shared proclamations, victims and villains are all the more clearly drawn \u2014 and available to be adopted as icons, symbols, and spokespeople for causes in this increasingly partisan world. <\/p>\n

But first the drama needs to tick the relevant boxes, to provide traction and points of attachment for movements, lest the viewing audience fail to connect the dots in the intended fashion. <\/p>\n

Let the dot-connecting begin. . . A little something for everyone.<\/p>\n

– Racist innuendo.
\n– Mental health allusion.
\n– Echoes of one or two prior tragic scenarios
\n– Cult control \/ and attendant helplessness and isolation
\n– David and Goliath narrative<\/p>\n

I like to think of myself as neither a rabid monarchist nor a barking populist. What I do find increasingly disturbing is the ease with which \u2018responsible news sources\u2019 (and others!) are able to be manipulated and ultimately exploited to self-serving ends. All the usual suspects hopped on with all the usual biases and slants. CNN and MSNBC scrambled to interview BLM and psychiatric sources. Fox and its ilk championed (gulp!) the polar opposite. <\/p>\n

And so to the opening question. The \u2018right answer\u2019 can include:
\n– In depth coverage
\n– Assignment of opinion to editorial pages
\n– Balanced reporting
\n– Paced, measured absorption of material
\n– Fact checked substance <\/p>\n

Perhaps Method # 1 has something to recommend it after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it better to get our news from a newspaper than from television? There is a right answer \u2014 or at least a \u2018two-point\u2019 response (vs. a \u2018one\u2019 or a \u2018zero\u2019). In the dark ages of IQ measurement, such questions found themselves huddled together in a \u2018sub-test\u2019 call Comprehension. The intent of these fifteen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}