"Mephitic" is a ten-dollar word for "sulfurous stench." Shales predicted: "What we'll probably see more of in the weeks and months of remodeling ahead is more of that carping, contentious talk that thrives on competitors Fox News and MSNBC, where personalities like Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann (arguably two sides of the same coin) hold forth."
He blamed all this on...the blogosphere:
What has brought on the wave of harshness and calumny that saturates public conversation in the 21st century -- so far? The Internet, with its mob rule and forums open to every conceivable variety of nut, has arguably been a principal cause, elevating trash speech to the level of published commentary just because there's room for it -- here, there, everywhere.
Maybe Larry Kings cannot thrive or even survive in a world where the norms for discourse are rage, vehemence and character assassination. King wanted to be liked, not feared; admired, not loathed. The veteran broadcaster has no apologies to make, either. For 25 years, he made a radio format work on television, and certainly without being another pretty face. The ugliness might lie ahead, especially if CNN tries to out-shout the boors and demagogues representative of Fox News Channel and MSNBC.
Not that every person who helms a talk show on these networks is guilty of coarsening the conversation. But the big noises, the most prominent personalities, seem also to be the most shrill and hostile. They set the standard, substandard though it may be.
Shales even recirculated the unproven, never-found-on-video claims of Tea Party protesters yelling the N-word at black Members of Congress on Capitol Hill during the ObamaCare debate:
And what happens on television invariably affects -- and sometimes infects -- American life, manners and mores. In March, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was shocked to be jeered and vilified by anti-health-care-reform demonstrators on Capitol Hill who used the most vile of racial epithets when screaming at him.
"It surprised me," Lewis said afterward, "that people are so mean, and we can't engage in a civil dialogue and debate."
If he'd watched more cable TV, Lewis might not have been quite so surprised.
