Al Gore does the Internet, again

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004292

Gore Knocks the Idiot Box
"The 'quasi-hypnotic influence' of television in America has fostered a 
complacent nation that is a danger to democracy, former Vice President Al 
Gore said Tuesday," reports the Associated Press:

Gore, speaking on "Media and Democracy" at Middle Tennessee State 
University, told attendees the decline of newspapers as the country's 
dominant method of communication leaves average Americans without an outlet 
for scholarly debate.

"Our democracy is suffering in an age when the dominant medium is not 
accessible to the average person and does not lend itself most readily to 
the conveyance of complex ideas about self-governance," Gore said. "Instead 
it pushes toward a lowest common denominator."

Who ever said Gore was condescending? Fortunately, the ex-veep has a 
solution: "Gore said a remedy to television's dominance may [be] the 
Internet, a 'print-based medium that is extremely accessible to the average 
person.' " That's certainly inventive.
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