Once upon a time, Fred. One summer when I was doing my MA in Halifax I
was hired by the CBC precisely because they thought I could write, & my
work was to take each hour's news bulletin off the wire, & even if it
was the same as the one before find a way to say it differently, AND
correctly.
They don't hire such people any more & even on the CBC I hear errors
now, though not as many as elsewhere.
As to your comment below, I guess FOX & talk radio has done 'cool
medium' in. Or the raving audience has.
McLuhan may have mistakenly thought that the civilized society that
would be TV's continuing audience would also be 'educated' enough to
respond with wit & intelligence to the same on the other side of the
screen. It is to laugh....
Doug
On 24-Oct-07, at 3:06 PM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
> I'd expect CBC newscasters to be at least literate.Real despair,
> political and stylistic, lies in watching Glenn Beck and other
> American TV "commentators." The only consolation to which is that
> they disprove McLuhan's contention, back in the early 60s, that a
> televised Hitler would be impossible. TV a "cool" medium, imposing
> coolness, as opposed to radio, etc. Even at the time this struck me
> as too optimistic.
Douglas Barbour
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Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
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Who hasn't tried to learn it
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Jan Zwicky
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