THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

WE NEED A NEW APPROACH FOR A NEW WORLD | 2005-06-18

My Saturday show this week at 2 pm at

The Untrained Eye

will be about how to discuss our issues.

You have heard a thousand debates between "both sides." You could write what the liberals are going to say and what the respectable conservatives are going to say. This way, the media says it has free speech and that it presents both sides.

This "discussion" consists mostly of conservatives trying to prove that they are less "racist" or "isolationist" or whatever than liberals say they are.

It is far, far worse than a waste of time. It is totalitarianism with a pretence of two sides.

Like a professor, a respectable conservative gets paid for filling a time slot. He could do it in his sleep. You could do it in your sleep.

The internet is breaking into this. But when an internet radio show goes on, it follows the old media rules.

Those of us talking on the internet spend most of our time trying to prove we are not who liberals say we are. We are called haters, so we use the useless old conservative tactic of quoting minority hate speech to prove we're not the haters.

You know the drill.

The other regular media habit we have inherited is slavishly filling up a time slot.

This is a new medium. We need to develop a new approach.