William Bennett, self-proclaimed czar of American morals and failed head of the drug and education wars, is lampooned quite effectively by Jon Katz in this refutation of the mediaphobes," i.e., those fearful of the effects of the media revolution and the online world. Katz takes the position that the Internet will provide a useful supplement to traditional media by providing a democratic outlet for the voices of individuals. Historically, he argues, local newspapers reflected the views of individuals and local citizens. As large corporations bought up newspapers, they became more concerned with the "bottom line" and profit for the stockholders, making the papers bland pabulum, more given to selling widgets than ideas.

Today's mediaphobes, the "boomer' parents, suffer from the same 'reactionary parental impulse to condemn whatever is new or different as tasteless and inferior.' This concern is expressed as fear for the values of our youth. The traditional media exploit this boomer-generation panic by promoting irrational fear of the Internet. Katz reserves his harshest criticism for moral ideologues like William Bennett, who served first as head of George Bush's war on drugs and then as Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan. He failed miserably at both jobs. The day Bennett left the Department of Education, the College Board revealed that SAT scores had dropped for the first time in eight years. Bennett blamed the schools. Moral: Take the money and run. Never accept responsibility if you can blame someone else. "But in shamefree America, extreme failure in the pursuit of self-righteousness is no vice. In fact, it's a marketing opportunity. Far from brooding quietly over the untamed drug epidemic or failing schools, Bennett taught us a thing or two about gall and redemption, inspiring everyone who blunders spectacularly and wonders if there's life beyond."

Bennett's [b:Book of Virtues|57854|Tao Te Ching, 25th-Anniversary Edition (Mandarin_chinese Edition) |Laozi|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170477344s/57854.jpg|100074], a singularly unoriginal book that consists mostly of silly little poems, earned him over five million dollars. "Not bad for a book he didn't write. Except for the introduction and some moral asides, all the poems, fables, and folktales within are other authors' work, many of them altered to be less provocative or controversial. Want him to come talk to your Sunday school class? He charges forty thousand dollars per lecture."

Those wishing to truly explore the world of morality might wish to spend some time with Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who took morality truly seriously. He reflected, "it sometimes happens that men who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconscious haters of other men. They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even." ([b:Seeds of Reflection|573612|Zen Seeds Reflections of a Female Priest|Patricia Daien Bennage|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175908686s/573612.jpg|560624]) ( )

The nineties were a vintage decade for moral panics centered on the media. It was, after all, the era when the Vice-President of the United States (Dan Quayle) denounced a fictional character (Murphy Brown) for choosing to have a child while unmarried. Self-proclaimed guardians of public morality also denounced violent crime dramas, profane music lyrics, and crass “trash TV” talk shows. The web, which entered the public’s consciousness at mid-decade, created a fresh wave of alarm. A Time magazine cover story breathlessly declared that over half of all newsgroup traffic was pornography, and asked: “Can we protect our children?”

Media critic Jon Katz was unimpressed. His Virtuous Reality, published in 1997, charges Baby-Boom-generation parents with forgetting their own rebellious youth, the moral crusaders with forgetting that children can think, journalists with forgetting their responsibility to the public, and everyone with forgetting their common sense.

Sixteen years later, media-centered moral panics are still very much with us. The targets have changed, but the dynamics haven’t. Katz’s main themes thus ring depressingly true. His call for less sensationalism and more trust in our children is still worth heeding. The force of his arguments is, unfortunately, diffused by entire chapters-worth of extraneous material. His snarky takedown of William Bennett and his Book of Virtues, admiring recap of the life of Thomas Paine, and prescient take n the future of journalism in the digital age are all entertaining reading, but they are ultimately sidebars. They take space – collectively, a lot of space – from the book’s larger point, preventing it from properly coalescing. The writing itself also lacks clarity and force. Mainstream media coverage of popular culture – especially digital culture – is still lamentable: rooted in fear, driven by sensationalism, and rife with misunderstanding. A vigorous critique and clarion call to do better is still needed . . . and this book still isn’t it. ( )