Quote Unquote - Fran Liebowitz

 

 

Audience member: "What's the best source for unbiased news?"

 

Anne: "Here's the problem.  Here's what news used to be: information.  That's what news is.

 

Now every article in the New York Times - no matter what it is - it starts with, like: 'On a rocky road in Afghanistan...'  

It's, like, three paragraphs till you get to 'a bomb blew up in Afghanistan.'  The bomb is the news.  The beginning is the writing. 

 

Facts are what's important in news.  But no-one's interested in facts anymore.  People are interested - and this I find astonishing - they're interested in other people's opinions.  

 

So, unbiased news, I don't think we'll have [it] anymore, because no-one seems to know what news is.

 

They turn on the news and they watch people give their opinions.  That's what they see on the news, that's what they see on the TV, that's what they see on the internet, that's what they participate in.

 

Here's how I feel when someone on CNN says 'And here's our twitter number' or whatever - I'm not really up on technology - 'We wanna hear what you think.'

 

And I think: Really?  I don't."

 

 

 

"The media has replaced every institution.  It's the only authority.  I mean, it seems to be an authority.  It's replaced all other institutions.

 

When they first invented TV, people thought TV would be a failure.  They thought that, if people could see around they screen, they wouldn't be absorbed by it, because they would be distracted.  

 

They would see, like, the lamp and the sofa and they wouldn't be absorbed by it.

 

...

 

But no-one could have imagined what really happened, which is that the world went inside the television and became the world."

 

   

From: Public Speaking (2010) Documentary about Fran Liebowitz made by Martin Scorsese.

   

  

  

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Update on Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 5:34PM by Ittybittycrazy

ABC World News Sunday, November 28th topics:

• Wikileaks scandal
  • Interview with the reporters about the topic
• US and South Korea starting war games
• Voting in Haiti
• Bomb attempt in Portland, Oregon
• President Obama going to sit down with Republican's this week + current Lame Duck session
  • Interview with Snr Washington Editor about the Lame Duck session who told us how the Republicans and Democrats "feel" right now
• American Holiday sales
• Struggling US home owners scammed
• Alcohol in whipped cream - Whipped Lightning
• Couple in Pennsylvania hid the existence of their 5 children
• Dr Jim treating the homeless in Pittsburgh

So ABC World News has exactly three items of news to do with outside the US.

BBC News website front page:

• Wikileaks
• Irish bailout agreed
• China calls for Korean talks
• Brazil forces take over Rio slum
• US Mosque ablaze after bomb plot
• Candidates denounce Haiti voting fraud
• Swiss pass foreign convict vote
• Egypt votes
• Ivory Coast votes
• Arrests before Bangladesh strike
• Cosmos has pre-Big Bang marks
• Train wreck in Colorado