www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2IU703.html
By The Associated Press NEW YORK Here is the text of former Vice President Al Gore's remarks at the We Media conference on Wednesday in New York: I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave d anger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something h as gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketpla ce of ideas" now functions. How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alt ernate universe"? I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans sai d they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack. At first I thought the exhaustive, non-stop coverage of the OJ trial wa s just an unfortunate excess that marked an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. But now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obs essions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time. Are we still routinely torturing helpless prisoners, and if so, does it f eel right that we as American citizens are not outraged by the practice? And does it feel right to have no ongoing discussion of whether or not this abhorrent, medieval behavior is being carried out in the name of th e American people? If the gap between rich and poor is widening steadily and economic stress is mounting for low-income families, why do we seem increasingly apathetic and lethargic in our role as citizens? On the eve of the nation's decision to invade Iraq, our longest serving s enator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor asked: " Why is this chamber empty? The decision that was then being considered by the Senate with virtually no meaningful debate turned out to be a fateful one. A few days ago, the former head of the National Security Agency, Retired Lt. General Willia m Odom, said, "The invasion of Iraq, I believe, will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in US history." But whether you agree with his assessment or not, Senator Byrd's question is like the others that I have just posed here: he was saying, in effec t, this is strange, isn't it? Aren't we supposed to have full and vigoro us debates about questions as important as the choice between war and pe ace? Those of us who have served in the Senate and watched it change over time , could volunteer an answer to Senator Byrd's two questions: the Senate was silent on the eve of war because Senators don't feel that what they say on the floor of the Senate really matters that much any more. And th e chamber was empty because the Senators were somewhere else: they were in fundraisers collecting money from special interests in order to buy 3 0-second TVcommercials for their next re-election campaign. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was - at least for a short t ime - a quality of vividness and clarity of focus in our public discours e that reminded some Americans - including some journalists - that vivid ness and clarity used to be more common in the way we talk with one anot her about the problems and choices that we face. But then, like a passin g summer storm, the moment faded. In fact there was a time when America's public discourse was consistently much more vivid, focused and clear. Our Founders, probably the most lit erate generation in all of history, used words with astonishing precisio n and believed in the Rule of Reason. Their faith in the viability of Representative Democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry. But they placed partic ular emphasis on insuring that the public could be well- informed. And t hey took great care to protect the openness of the marketplace of ideas in order to ensure the free-flow of knowledge. The values that Americans had brought from Europe to the New World had gr own out of the sudden explosion of literacy and knowledge after Gutenber g's disruptive invention broke up the stagnant medieval information mono poly and triggered the Reformation, Humanism, and the Enlightenment and enshrined a new sovereign: the "Rule of Reason." Indeed, the self-governing republic they had the audacity to establish wa s later named by the historian Henry Steele Commager as "the Empire of R eason." Our founders knew all about the Roman Forum and the Agora in ancient Athe ns. They also understood quite well that in America, our public forum wo uld be an ongoing conversation about democracy in which individual citiz ens would participate not only by speaking directly in the presence of o thers -- but more commonly by communicating with their fellow citizens o ver great distances by means of the printed word. Thus they not only pro tected Freedom of Assembly as a basic right, they made a special point - in the First Amendment - of protecting the freedom of the printing pres s Their world was dominated by the printed word. Just as the proverbial fis h doesn't know it lives in water, the United States in its first half ce ntury knew nothing but the world of print: the Bible, Thomas Paine's fie ry call to revolution, the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution , our laws, the Congressional Record, newspapers and books. Though they feared that a government might try to censor the printing pre ss - as King George had done - they could not imagine that America's pub lic discourse would ever consist mainly of something other than words in print. And yet, as we meet here this morning, more than 40 years have passed sin ce the majority of Americans received their news and information from th e printed word. Newspapers are hemorrhaging readers and, for the most pa rt, resisting the temptation to inflate their circulation numbers. Readi ng itself is in sharp decline, not only in our country but in most of th e world. The Republic of Letters has been invaded and occupied by televi sion. Radio, the internet, movies, telephones, and other media all now vie for our attention - but it is television that still completely dominates the flow of information in modern America. In fact, according to an authori tative global study, Americans now watch television an average of four h ours and 28 minutes every day -- 90 minutes more than the world average. When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep an d a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost thr ee-quarters of all the discretionary time that the average American has. The internet is a formidable new medium of communication, but it is impor tant to note that it still doesn't hold a candle to television. Indeed, studies show that the majority of Internet users are actually simultaneo usly watching television while they are online. There is an important re ason why television maintains such a hold on its viewers in a way that t he internet does not, but I'll get to that in a few minutes. Television first overtook newsprint to become the dominant source of info rmation in America in 1963. But for the next two decades, the television networks mimicked the nation's leading newspapers by faithfully followi ng the standards of the journalism profession. But all the while, television's share of the total audience for news and information continued to grow -- and its lead over newsprint continued t o expand. And then one day, a smart young political consultant turned to an older elected official and succinctly described a new reality in Ame rica's public discourse: "If it's not on television, it doesn't exist." But some extremely important elements of American Democracy have been pus hed to the sidelines . And the most prominent casualty has been the "mar ketplace of ideas" that was so beloved and so carefully protected by our Founders. It is not that we no longer share ideas with one another about public mat ters; But the "Public Forum" in which our F...
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