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Originally Posted by headsplice
I read implied criticism into your statement by your use of the word 'hostile.' Was I wrong? Hooray for being born before me...I'm pretty sure that you're implying a comparison to Nixon into my statement, but it isn't there.
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Actually HappyMonkey invoked Nixon, and my parallel construction was "thirty years later".
I think there's more hostile scrutiny for two reasons:
1) there's more scrutiny, period, and
2) the "mainstream" media has moved considerably to the left since 1974, due not in small part to the
events of 1974.
That said, I'd guess that reason 1 is a vastly bigger impact than reason 2.
Your age is relevant because it's much more difficult to appreciate the profound differences in culture and mediaspace between 1974 and 2006 if you weren't around then.
Only four TV networks, with a daily news cycle rather than an hourly one. PBS/CBS/ABC/NBC news for an hour (or two, if you stayed up late) per night, but no CNN, no CNBC, no FoxNews, no CSPAN. Access to being published only if the editor or publisher of a dead-tree newspaper/magazine deems you worthy, and even your audience is no bigger than the readership of the rag in question.
Today's media environments create huge information spaces at the drop of a hat; the memetic equivalant of a flashmob. They're just not comparable playing fields.