I was reading this whole thread with much amusement, feeling kind of bad for hyjacking Karen's orignal thread with the cute Clark picture, and pretty much agreeing with everyone until this:
american media doesn't equal american people....hmmmm.... it's run by americans, employes americans, and americans make the decisions....
No. The American media is a very small minority that happens to have a humongous, megaphone-times-a-billion voice. We own the body and the brain, but the tiny select few own the mouth and the muscles that work it. And the only food they accept is green and has a whole bunch of zeros on it.
What is reflected in the media has nothing to do with the opinions of the majority of Americans, and to say that is almost the same - and please pardon the very extreme example here - as saying that an extremist like Osama Bin Laden's views are the real expression of the opinions of the majority of all Muslims. We all know that's not remotely true, but since I've heard his views the most often and on TV and in the newspapers and so on, is it fair for me to assume since he's the loudest, he must represent all of people like him? He employs Muslims. He is a Muslim. You get the picture.
(Again, not to in any way imply any level of equality to the two different situations, just trying to make a point and that was the quickest analogy I could think of.)
If American media is guilty of any one thing, it is their pure unapologetic exploitation of titallating material, but then for this we Americans do have to take the blame. If we didn't do the Google searches and buy the papers and watch the coverage on TV, they'd move on to something else. So for that, yes, we are guilty. In our defense, I think most UK folks would feel the same about their own media, which from my understanding tends to lean very far to the "voyeur" factor.
I do agree that Americans tend to be prudish - and honestly, I wouldn't care about that. To each his own. But it's the hypocrisy - the choosing where to be prudish and making a stink when someone steps over the line while accepting everything else around them that is at minimum equally questionable - that I personally find offensive. Others on this thread have pointed out very good examples, so I won't go there again.
OK, Karen, now I've just hyjacked this baby clear across the country! Sorry.
Lynn
