Media Comfort
We’d like to commend Greg Erlandson, the publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, for his column in the November 5, 2006, issue. He says: “Increasingly, these communications media are primarily used to reinforce what users already believe, which is why more Democrats listen to CNN and more Republicans listen to FOX, for example. With the occasional exception, these media are intended to serve up to people the expected and the comforting. The result is that one usually hears ‘the other side’ as described by ‘our side.'” How right he is. We know Greg to be a congenital moderate. But this ideological polarization just doesn’t affect moderates.
The title of his column is: “Why You Are an Idiot.” We don’t think that’s what he wanted to convey, or maybe he did. Who knows?
Media comfort is the enemy of media debate. If you don’t listen to all sides in politics, you are not staying intellectually sharp.
We think we get Greg’s point. He says: “Republicans hate the poor; Democrats want to cut and run; Republicans hate Mexicans; Democrats want to turn the country over to illegals — and on and on.” This is just propaganda. The Catholic Church is afflicted with this ideological polarization as well. We think Greg is saying: “Why can’t Catholics think with the mind of the Church?” Or at least we hope that’s what he’s saying.
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The main themes of "The Betrothed" include the mercy and forgiveness of God and the corruption caused by love of wealth and worldliness in society and the Church.
Daily we hear of intemperate students demanding this or that “right” drawn from a grab-bag of potential claims on others’ behavior.