At the end of a Times review of a documentary about Joseph Goebbels, Jeannette Catsoulis issues this unbelievable thought fart:
At a time when much of our news and entertainment media is controlled by a handful of corporations, “The Goebbels Experiment” is a cautionary reminder that equal access to the machinery of ideas may be society’s most critical goal.
So she’s drawing an equivalency between big media companies — one of which pays her [and, full disclosure, me] — and the Nazis.
And they say bloggers need editors!
That sentiment is screwy on so many levels.
First, big newspapers, such as the one in which she writes those words, are not built for “equal access.” What does “equal access” mean? The words sound so good, so PC, but they’re meaningless. And what is the “machinery of ideas” but society itself?
Second, we now have unlimited of opportunities for access and you’re looking at one.
Third, this is an extreme example of the demonization of big media. Said it before, say it again: The big media dinosaurs are, indeed, consolidating because they must huddle together against the cold wind of the great access-giver, the giant scarcity killer, the amazing distribution devaluer: the internet. Media — and news and journalism with them — are a business. Face the reality. This cant about big, bad media has gone too far.
