McLUHAN’S MESSAGE

This las year culminating in the nomination of Donald Trump has convinced me that the concept of the 24/7 news channel, which at one time seemed promising, is an unmitigated disaster. There is not enough significant news to fill the airways and pressed for profits (ratings) or they don’t survive, they opt for the most outrageous pieces of news. Then they select the ones that will produce ratings, regardless of their significance, and repeat them over and over and over supplemented by the views, with a few exceptions, of the most vapid talking heads. If it was benign, I could ignore it. But it produced a Donald Trump which removes it from the benign and puts it smack in the malignant category. And I’m watching it metastasize before my eyes. McLuhan was prescient.