Al Gore’s Assault on Television
By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 5/17/2007 9:21:00 AM
Al Gore has met the enemy and it is…television!
In his much anticipated—and closely guarded—book, The Assault on Reason, the former vice president blames television for the decline in public discourse and participation—and by extension, just about everything else.
“The Republic of Letters,” Gore writes in an excerpt posted on Time magazine’s Web site, “has been invaded and occupied by the empire of television.
“In the world of television,” Gore continues, “the massive flows of information are largely in only one direction, which makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The ‘well-informed citizenry’ is in danger of becoming the ‘well-amused audience.’”
In the book, which Penguin Press has embargoed until May 22, Gore takes a swipe at that well-worn target, saturation coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which he blames for permanently lowering the standards of the medium. He notes that the Simpson marathon was followed by scorched-earth coverage of the problems of Michael Jackson, Laci Peterson, Britney and KFed, etc., etc.
The consequences? While the citizens were zoned out in front of the tube, “...[O]ur nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness.”
The solution, Gore says, lies in the Internet. “It is the most interactive medium in history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge. It’s a platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and distribution of ideas.”
Gore will begin his promotional campaign for the book May 21, with appearances on ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight.
