If only we could control the media...

says the media.

I spend a considerable amount of time defending the media to a couple of my rightward leaning friends. Of course, the left tends to have its own beef. Without any emprirical evidence to back me up, I would have to say the media is one of our most beleagured national institutions. I'm not saying they don't deserve criticism, they often do. But it does seem that if you got a big group of people with varying viewpoints together in the same room and asked them what we could get rid of to improve America, they might very likely decide on the media.

And from what I can tell if anyone would show up to defend the media, it would not be the media itself. Talking heads love to pound home the problems that media cause in our society. I saw an example of this in person earlier in the week, when I attended a presentation by a local media member. The media member described the media as a monolith that could exert its will and was uncontrollable. It creates our poor images of ourselves, encourages us to be passive, and manipulates all our thoughts and feelings. If I felt that way about my profession, I think I might not do it anymore.