Essay Database

In the 26-day interstice between the bombings in New York and Washington and the U.S. military's latest foray in the Middle East, a remarkable and unprecedented redirection of media rhetoric occurred. A shift from stories and information of dubious importance to all-war-all-the-time programming overtook radio talk-show hosts and parts of the print-news biz. While it's hard to say whether this represents any kind of improvement in the general state of things--the jingoism and fear-mongering …

…usual suspects for aural torture. It's still right-wing radio, of course, so let's not give it too much credit for doing what it should be doing during a time of national crisis: informing the public and listening as it speaks. Yet, we should be thankful--and not in a gloating way--that even cranky, self-consciously "provocative" radio jocks know enough about what makes a story that they can put their parochial dramas aside until the storm passes.