On the way home from work yesterday I was reminded of one of my biggest pet peeves about journalism. Currently, the state of Illinois is (like many states) struggling with how to expand funding for schools without pissing off too many people. So the local public radio station is full of stories about the battle between the governor and the legislature about how to fund schools. Obviously, this is a mind-bogglingly complex issue with lots of interested political groups and everyone is sniping back and forth at each other’s ideas rather than generating any of their own.
But that’s not what bothers me. What I find annoying about the situation is how the local NPR affiliate decided to do a “man on the street” segment, where they went out and asked people walking by how they would fund schools. Now, if the average man on the street knew how to fix this problem, there would be no problem. But nooooOOOOoooo, we have to go ask the village idiot what he/she thinks. I HATE these “stories” more than anything else on earth. Not because I hate the people themselves (heck, they’re just trying to get home after a long day at work) but because they have no idea what they are talking about! While the opinions of qualified idiots that I am subjected to on the Sunday talk shows are often irritating, they are nothing compared to the opinions of unqualified idiots. Let’s look at some of the ideas that were mentioned in the story:
1) “I dunno. Tax the wealthy?”
2) “Do it exactly as it is laid out in the constitution of the great state of Illinois!”
3) “School choice will force schools to reduce costs, so institute that.”
4) “I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m just trying to pay my rent, my phone bill, my gas bill and all that other stuff.”
One wonders why these people don’t immediately find work as talking heads for C-Span or Fox News.
Fortunately, pictures of cuteness can do wonders to alleviate my rage.
Ahhh…blood…pressure…dropping…rage…dissipating…
Damn that works well. Maybe we should just airdrop planes full of cute kittens over Jerusalem to solve the middle east crisis. Of course, PETA wouldn’t be havin’ that. But we can probably distract them if we disguise the kittens as heads of cauliflower.
Comments
-Scholar 1: The government just tells people what to think, and citizens are too clueless to defend themselves.
-Scholar 2: No, it's even worse. People are so clueless that they don't even have the coherent opinions politicians want them to have.
-Scholar 3: Maybe they're not _that_ clueless. They seem to aborb very minimal levels of information and come up with something that at least sounds like an opinion.
-Scholar 4: Of course, that information comes from politicians, interest groups, and the media, 'public opinion' is just a construction of those in power. And, again, people are too clueless to realize it.
And there you have the last 80 or so years of my field in a nutshell. I land somewhere between #3 and #4.
But they do know kung fu...