Outrageuos Outrage

I thought the cartoon was funny enough, but what I really found to be delightful was the Economist's description this week of some of America's more famous (infamous) talking heads:

THE most striking thing about Americans to many outsiders is how nice they are. . . . Yet turn on cable television and you are confronted with a series of people who are in a perpetual state of outrage. They are incensed (if they're on the left) that Barbara Bush has stipulated that her Hurricane Katrina donation should be used to buy software from a firm owned by one of her sons; furious (if they're on the right) that Hillary Clinton has invoked Jesus's name in decrying Republican immigration policies; and pig-wrestling mad (and here outrage goes bipartisan) that Yale University has admitted a former spokesman for the Taliban.

The current king of outrage is Bill O'Reilly, the host of a Fox television show who only has to look at the camera to convey a sense that some monstrosity has been committed. But there are plenty of others. Sean Hannity (also at Fox) and Joe Scarborough (at MSNBC) are furious about whatever the Democrats have done that day. Over at CNN, Lou Dobbs, under the guise of presenting a news programme, bashes the government for failing to fix America's borders, and big companies for exporting jobs abroad. The oddest of the lot is Don Imus (also at MSNBC) who sits there with a cowboy hat on his head and a scowl on his face, fulminating about whatever irritates him at that moment.

I was also duly chastened. Outrage spawns outrage, and I plead guilty to having been seduced at times. The Economist has a better idea. Make fun of them, satitize them, but never, ever take them seriously. For, as the same article reminds us:

America's tabloid titans appeal only to narrow slivers of the country (“The O'Reilly Factor” reaches 2.5m people in a country of 300m). Most Americans pride themselves on their tolerance.