The Irrelevance of Print Media
Time has once again proven that print media is irrelevant by releasing their Top 100 most influential people list. Really folks, I think it is time for Americans to confess just how dumb we really are.
Time has once again proven that print media is irrelevant by releasing their Top 100 most influential people list. Really folks, I think it is time for Americans to confess just how dumb we really are.
May 3, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I only looked at artists and entertainers because it is Saturday, and thinking is outlawed on Saturday when I have to work on Sunday.
Anyway, good golly! What an awful list. Miley Cyrus? Mariah Carey? And why on earth is Tim Russert in that category? Has the gap between news and entertainment disappeared completely/
I fear for the future of this country. Now I’m going to go vote in a congressional election where my choices are a political neophyte who was well funded enough by the Democratic Machine enough to flood my mailbox with 3 or 4 flyers a day for the past month despite having environmentalism as part of his platform and a racist who would like to see the US turned into a theocracy run on fundamentalist Christian beliefs.
I love Louisiana.
May 3, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I’m going to go with Sherman Alexie on this: it’s the same world. It’s always been the same world. People are no more or less stupid, just displaying it in different ways.
Meanwhile, I didn’t think it was such a terrible list. Miley Cyrus is hugely influential on the lives and interests of her fans–which may be lamentable but that doesn’t mean it isn’t *true*–especially if we understand Miley Cyrus as a brand and not just as a private person.
May 4, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I’m not really understanding your post. Certainly any list like this is going to be subjective. But they’re listing people who are currently influencial. I didn’t go through the whole list but as I was clicking through I could certainly agree that the ones I saw are quite influential.
May 4, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I’m not going to speak for LP, but my frustration (at least with the section I looked at yesterday), is the fact that these are the people who are influential in this country right now. When a 16 year old with a TV show is considered one of the most 100 influential people in the country (and is one of the most influential people in the country), that makes me sad.
May 5, 2008 at 7:03 am
So much for a throw away post…
I agree with Anastasia, this isn’t proof that we are MORE stupid, but if these are our biggest cultural influences, then we certainly aren’t getting much brighter.
We adore pop culture. Hell, I adore pop culture. But there is – or at least should be – a limit to how much influence it has.
May 14, 2008 at 2:48 am
And since when is Bloomberg a “scientist or thinker” ??