Talk radio analyzed as entertainment rather than journalism — anger and stimulation as entertainment products…
echoes
From: DFW on Consider the Lobster — Bookworm with Michael Silverblatt, KCRW (March 2, 2006)
- Early text:
[scene] Silverblatt's summary of Host: liberal
critics err by treating the stations as political commentary and
journalism when the stations treat themselves as entertainment, so
political and factual arguments are beside their real concern, which is
turning anger and stimulation into entertainment [01:10–02:28].
Wallace's own gloss: the pieces are about ideology; the two camps
argue like an old married couple, each with a point, no conversation
occurring; his contribution was structural fairness where the medium
itself offers none [03:37–04:54].
- IJ echo: E Unibus Pluram's argument that entertainment logic
restructures American discourse and self-presentation
(e-unibus-pluram); IJ's Entertainment as that
logic's terminal case.
- Weight: shared-preoccupation