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Norman Lear offered a terrific take on fake news in The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Among the points he made:

  • False stories were more likely than real news articles to go viral on social media
  • We’re more likely to pay attention to the final source of an article — the person who calls it to our attention — than to the original source.

The answer, Lear claims: “There is an urgent need for more and better civics education in our schools, and that must be joined by efforts to foster media literacy and critical thinking.”

There in lies the rub — to quote a source whose authenticity is still in doubt.

People are not all rational human beings like Mr. Lear is. Humans are selfish, greedy and needy. We believe what we want to believe, what makes us comfortable and what is believed by the

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Has Network TV lost so much of its audience during the past decade (or two) because it can’t show nudity?  Because it only grudgingly and inconsistently allows “strong” language?  Because it doesn’t dare to attempt to cover really deep, raw, gritty story subjects.

cartoon of people riding a TV set over a waterfall

From the New Yorker, June 2006

Part of the problem stems from the above reasons.  But ALL of the reason boils down to the reliance on commercial sponsors.

Since the dawn of TV, the sponsors have owned the programming and — as a result — the networks.  None of the major networks will dare to cross the advertisers.

How about the FCC?  No — networks challenge the FCC all the time.  Sometimes they have to pay fines.  But they seem to be OK with that.

The biggest problem is satisfying the advertisers that there will be people watching the programs that a Network puts on the air.

And not just any people — the RIGHT people.

Dividing the audience by sex, income level, age and other factors is called “demographics.”  TV

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