Al Gore gave a stirring speech at the American Press Center's We Media conference. The introduction to the speech makes clear the depth of concern about the state of American dialogue about issues that matter.
"I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse ... I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions."
Gore goes on to ask a series of questions about the lack of engagement of the Congress and the American people in a deliberative discourse on issues such as war or peace, torture or Geneva Conventions, income disparity or working for equality. He notes that our country's Founders had devised a government that permitted citizens to have a say in government policies through their representatives, but to work, both citizens and representatives must be informed and engaged through an open "marketplace of ideas."
" [The Founders'] faith in the viability of Representative Democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry. But they placed particular emphasis on insuring that the public could be well-informed. And they took great care to protect the openness of the marketplace of ideas in order to ensure the free-flow of knowledge."
The Founders counldn't forsee, however, the reign of television and the stranglehold that a few dominant corporations would be able to exercise over the information available to the American people.
"Radio, the internet, movies, telephones, and other media all now vie for our attention - but it is television that still completely dominates the flow of information in modern America. In fact, according to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of four hours and 28 minutes every day - 90 minutes more than the world average."
With the rise of television as the dominant medium that has taken over the public forum that was meant to ensure the accountability of the government to the people , the discourse is changed immeasurably. Gore notes several major changes between the newspaper medium available to the Founders and the pervasive short clips of television that pass for journalism today.
"Istead of the easy and free access individuals had to participate in the national conversation by means of the printed word, the world of television makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation today."
"[Television] is accessible in only one direction; there is no true interactivity, and certainly no conversation."
"The production of programming has been centralized and has usually required a massive capital investment. So for these and other reasons, an ever-smaller number of large corporations control virtually all of the television programming in America."
"[U]nlike the marketplace of ideas that emerged in the wake of the printing press, there is virtually no exchange of ideas at all in television's domain."
"[T]he absence of a two-way conversation in American television also means that there is no "meritocracy of ideas" on television. To the extent that there is a "marketplace" of any kind for ideas on television, it is a rigged market, an oligopoly, with imposing barriers to entry that exclude the average citizen."
Those changes carry a heavy price. The cheap, passive entertainment and digested news leave We the People inadequately prepared to engage in weighty discussions about the state of the Union or the competence of the bureaucrats or the choices between taxing or borrowing, cutting or creating b benefits. In short, as Gore notes,
"[The] concentration of control over this powerful one-way medium carries with it the potential for damaging the operations of our democracy."
You can download the audio from the speech at this link.