Quality You´re Stuck With

Let me take the opportunity to second Sonny´s contention that a true nobility of movie reviewers is impossible without a plurality of nobles. I´m of the mind that monopolies should be permitted to form — only to be busted up — so in the broader context of media centralization, I´m very hesitant to suggest we ought to protect writerly plurality by, say, some kind of broad interpretation of free speech law. By and large, we get the media we deserve…but there´s no surprise that the blogosphere provides a perfect platform for people who prove why centralization and streamlining in media are generally bad. And it´s no surprise that, increasingly, bloggers with a more or less DC-centric focus are getting national exposure.

But I wonder: how unfortunate is it that blogging tends to point everyone away from issues with a regional or local focus and toward national news? Probably not very unfortunate, I think, but I do think the story changes a little bit when we consider the nationalization of news, attention, and opinion. Public opinion has always carried a pretty strong weight in America, and in a way is the currency of democracy, but liberal theory has always had to figure out whether or not the ranked consolidation of information and knowledge has a telos with political implications.

When it comes down to it, I´d rather it didn´t, because that sounds like a path toward the elimination of a plural intellectual nobility between the tippy-top and the undifferentiated mass. But the tendency seems clear enough: toward a uniform sort of quality that you´re stuck with.