What People Want

Meinhart's response and thoughts on media:

Well, Cellophane, you almost got it right! Televised news is a mess. However, it is a mess because it is not, like all of our most venerable institutions such as high school sports and the nuclear family, shame based. Andy Rooney aside, there are but few on the air who convey the proper sense of contempt so crucial to guiding the Great Unwashed.

Now, I am not saying that television news should not try to shock and frighten the audience – it certainly should. But what must be made clear to viewers is that the reason they face inescapable disaster is because they are utter failures as human beings. In other words, it is important that each and every last man, woman and child of this nation be terrified that they will perish in a terrorist plot. But it is even more important for every man, woman and child to anguish over the fact that it is their flaws of character that have sealed their hideous fate.

I have a great appreciation for your disgust with the media and hope that this correspondence will help you to better focus your disdain and perhaps implement it in other areas of your life.