US media: money-grubbing élitists
published: Wednesday | October 27, 2004

THE EDITOR, Sir:

STEPHEN VASCIANNIE, in his Tuesday, October 26, 2004 essay, written in critique of the behemoth, American media points to the shallow, the stupid, the sensational, offerings of the media and argues his points well on the Presidential election, race issues, and the War in Iraq. We must suppose he bemoans the difference between the reality of the day and some, as yet undefined, idealistic world in which truth and justice are more important than things and unfairness.

Sorry Stephen, where have you been? A more-experienced, perhaps closer to the bad smell of it all, view might suggest that those who decide what goes into the make-up of the American media, and I assume Mr. Vasciannie means the news media, are in fact a potpourri of the American and the international affluent. Individually, they believe a lot of different things, but collectively have the same capitalist notion that they serve the money, which they see as primarily coming from everyone and not just some other, affluent persons.

At the same time, however, they can't see the world from the perspective of the less-educated, the less-affluent, so it's most difficult for them to know what the poorer, less-educated actually like or need. They give them, and mistakenly most of the time, what they think they'd like, rather than what they'd like or might like. So, there's the problem rolled in banana leaf. The media do a fine job, they're just a bunch of money-grubbing élitists, most of whom don't really care or understand the rest of us.

I am, etc.,

ED MCCOY

mmhobo48@juno.com

Bokeelia, Florida

Via Go-Jamaica