I do not have a major disagreement with Robert DeNiro's statement - just that it really doesn't get to the root of the problem. In fact, his assessment that this is largely a Republican problem seems spot on to me. My comments to the piece reported on the Huffington Post follows:
For me the bottom line isn't the Trumps of this world. Trump is merely repeating the behavior that has become all too common on both sides of the aisle. We make statements that we do not mean "to be factual" hoping that some of the malice will adhere itself to the intended target and that there are suitably large numbers of people simpleminded enough to grab onto it as the truth.
Once upon a time we had a media that was governed by a measure of journalistic integrity that would both ignore these pronouncements and not give them any traction by allowing them the same weight as truly factual comments. A media when faced with outright lies and misleading commentary by the political ruling class or their big business overlords would shine the light of truth upon it. Today, sadly, the media has been taken over by the same overlords and we get the false equivalencies fed to us over and over again.
Today we do have a way to combat some of this with information gained from other sources and the common sense that we all possess - even if it is weakened from under use. We can also become more active in demonstrating our support for American ideals - new and old - through activism - yet another quality that has atrophied since the 60's and 70's.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/24/robert-de-niro-calls-out-republicans_n_852988.html
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