It’s Information Underload:
Most people these days don’t make the effort to keep up with the news
By Walt Bodine
The Squire — November 2004

No population on earth has ever been exposed to as many sources of current events information as the people of the United States.

And yet the average American is a political ignoramus, easily manipulated by cynical political manipulators.

If you happen to be a person who, miracle of miracles, can name your representative in congress and both of your U.S. senators, be proud. Be prouder still if you can actually tell the names of your members of the city council or your county or state legislators.

Now, if you also are in frequent contact with any or all of the above, keeping track of how they are voting, and letting them know what you like and dislike, then, my friend, you have achieved citizen sainthood, and you can be sure you are a member of a magnificently exclusive species.

Because we do not do most of the things listed above, we get the kind of government we have at every level, and at that the elected officials are better than we deserve.

Do we have a chance to be informed? To be sure. If the day ever comes when the average person in this country is as interested in government and how it works as he is in the starting lineup of a ball game, or who plays the major positions with the Chiefs, then you will begin to see a better nation, and your children will be able to look to a better future.

God knows there are ample conduits for information today. More TV networks then ever, a growing list of cable features, satellite services, daily newspapers, rounded out by a lively suburban press and even relatively new papers and magazines within the city itself, like The Pitch and Ingram’s City Homes. In addition, every major magazine stand abounds with hundreds of titles, and in Kansas City 36 radio signals add to the mix.

Never have so many worked so hard in so many ways, to reach an audience that, in the main, doesn’t give a damn.

Is a lot of that news shallow? You bet it is. Survey’s polls and research help them to know their audiences and readerships. If too much air times goes to covering trivial Hollywood news bout the stars currently crossing the show business heavens, well, it is because lots of people would rather see that than to understand complicated issues. TV stations- which have the lion’s share of the news audience are no good at explaining complex issues, or dealing with how to convey all those facts and figures, let alone explaining exactly what they mean.

Some way, somehow, people in the country have gotten the idea they are doing a sacrificial act if they bother to read up on an issue or communicate with an elected official. They expect a good conduct medal for doing what should be the job of every one of us.

I think it might be instructive if, for one week, they would print on the front page, and run as a spot of TV and radio this quote: “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.” The gleeful leader who said that was Adolph Hitler.

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