Salerno’s point is that the “news”, usually presented as some “mirror of the world”, a mirror it ain’t, can’t be, and won’t ever be, at least the way they are constructed at the moment.

I do not care about journalists: I care more about making people aware, especially children in schools, that what appears on TV, on paper, on the internet _requires_ their critical thinking. If they can keep that up, then why not watch television: it’s sure great for entertainment purposes!

The goal will finally be reached when people will stop saying “I saw it on the news!” as some kind of authoritative argument.

Reporter: “Tom, I’m currently ten miles outside of Beaverton, unable to get inside the town proper. We do not have any reports of fatalities yet, but we believe that the death toll may be in the hundreds of millions. Beaverton has only a population of about 8,000, Tom, so this would be quite devastating.”

Is it a bad thing that news stirs people up? I say yes, witness the erosion of liberties in the name of fighting terrorism or pedophiles.

So what could you do? I think we need more journalists who are numerate, whose first response to hearing that 1000 people die a year is not “oh my god” but “compared to what?” Perhaps this would be a good project for philanthropy, staff a newspaper with critical thinkers. Although how to get people to read it…