Ethos

[first lines]

Himself - Host:
Every day we turn on the TV and there's more bad news. Another environmental catastrophe somewhere, or more starving refugees, or innocent victims in war zones. And most of us are busy trying to make ends meet in our own lives, and we see these images and we feel helpless to do anything about it. I think the deep shame we feel about that is paralyzing. Certainly one of the reasons we turn away.

Title Card:
Our ethos is all that we currently hold to be true. It is what we act upon. It governs our manners, or business and our politics. - In memory of Howard Zinn 1922-2010

Himself - Host:
Media influence on public opinion has been studied for many years now. We know for example that the media often play what's called an agenda setting role. Public concern about issues tends to follow media coverage of those issues, rather than any changes in the real world." "The media create the impression of the American public has a real choice. You could choose Bush or you could choose Gore, the implication being that they are both very different. But on substantive budgetary or economic issues, the differences between them are really on the margins. Both leading Democrats and Republicans support a privatized health care system, they support corporate-backed global trade agreements, they support maintaining a co-board defense budget, and they generally favor the interests of big business.

Himself - Host:
But the media give the impression that Democrats and Republicans represent a broad range of opinion by focusing on civil liberty non-monetary issues like gay rights or abortion, where Democrats and Republicans really do differ. And this masks the degree of the lead consensus.