Scandals- are there more than ever before?

Always find it odd when an OP doesn’t return to his/her own thread.

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Well I really didn't have much t

.....to say lol -or add... got cut off.

But I was interested in everyone's different opinions, and enjoyed reading everyone's viewpoints . We have basically a thoughtful articulate bunch at mofo, and even if we disagree, I appreciate everyone's input.

I really didn't feel a need to debate or add to the ideas expressed here- just glad to listen in. But you seem to be expecting some words from me, - I will more or less repeat myself by saying: I can agree with Dani8 that I've never seen anything like this in my life. Even if it's just a change in media reporting - I DO feel that something has changed. And perhaps not just in media, but perhaps in society itself. And it may have been brewing for quite some time, but ijmho - has come to an ugly fruition now.

That's how I feel. I like to discuss, but, I have no need to bop somebody over the head just because they have a different viewpoint than my own. Glad you think likewise
It does indeed feel like something has changed. There's a new awareness of past wrongs being committed, usually against women with sexual harassment, and there's an attempt to put an end to 'looking the other way'. Which I applaud.

But...at the same time the media does what the media has been doing since info-tainment became a thing with cable news....they turn any current hot topic into a media circus. That circus then creates a highly charged environment where everybody can be suspect, regardless of guilt. I.E. trial by the media, where one is guilty until proven innocent.

That phenomenon also occurred during the 1950s with the communist scare, McCarthyism and the investigations into it by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee. There were people guilty of communist subversion at the time like the Rosenberg that supplied top secret information to the USSR. But there was also many people who had innocently associated with the communist party when young and they too were ranked over the coals and careers were destroyed by blacklisting.

Thank you @Citizen Rules; you've expressed my sentiments better than I could have myself.


And speaking of harsh tactics against those who had no devious motives against their country - or anyone: I think of Pete Seeger. Banned and blacklisted from tv and media for years, he kept busy with a project some would have called far fetched- to clean up the Hudson River. The Clearwater Sloop will still be sailing, trying to raise awareness of the environment- long after he received a Presidental pardon - and the fish have come back to swim that ' dirty little river' next to where Pete once made his home.

I've only skimmed through some of the previous posts (I am aware of the irony that that is also sort of part of the problem?), so if I'm repeating so be it.

Personally, I believe humans have always had scandal. We make drama for ourselves then use it for entertainment. Human nature has been consistent, I feel, while it is mostly our access to and ability to disseminate information that has changed. Profits demand we feed the 24-hour news cycle with meat, whether that's prime rib or fatty sausage filler. That model has been adopted by damn near every marketing approach since all the knowledge (and false knowledge) of the world is now within a moment's reach. The speed in which we can not only receive information, but redistribute that information has grown faster than our capability (or willingness?) to verify such information. Add to that our own observational biases to selectively cull differing opinions, heightened by a generation or two weaned into and mostly ignorantly dependent on sugary substances for both body and mind, we are psychologically compelled to seek more stimuli to maintain our attention.

Speaking of bias, what scandals exist are strategically marketed far more than ever for emotional impact. So much so that we cannot be bothered to question our encouraged impulse. Instead, we roll with it setting logic and healthy skepticism aside to be endlessly reassured that our gut feelings are absolutely accurate and that person over there, and anything that they say or do are absolutely scandalous.

On the other side of that coin though stands the scandal which I feel, given our social climate and the seemingly lack of honest humility, regret, or consequence, has become trivial. Why make great effort to hide something that is now very subjective to interpretation given everyone's right to an opinion or that because of our waning attention spans, that scandal will be swallowed whole in the next media cycle for what a Kardashian tweets?


Fun!!!

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Ran across this video the other day and it reminded me of the initial discussion here. Definitely worth a watch.

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Woah Woah

If I didn't love him before I don't know how I feel now other than I am amazed and cannot applaud loudly enough. Richard Dreyfuss has just utterly pounded one of the entertainment sewerats I despise on day time TV. GOOD. ON. HIM! I am so bored with the scurrilous attempts to dredge up decades long tidbits in an attempt to make $ for the disgraceful 'media' outlets they sniff around like dogs waiting in line to earn a living from.

He is a guest here in Sydney on a press junket to give us all entertain news. Shame on you, Lisa Wilkinson. You were never a journalist and this confirms it.

Oh, he's pwned that specimen, has he? Good for him. I could never stand her either!

I can't stand any of them, iank, but she's on top of the pile. I'm glad he called her on her lack of ethics, and that he held himself as a gentleman. It's time to get back to news.

I remember being totally in awe of him when I was a kid and didn't read a blip of anything of the sort, and my parents certainly would have talked about it. That's my two cents.