...vividness and clarity used to be more common.... America's public discourse [has] become less focused and clear, less reasoned....

... serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time.

That is why campaign finance reform, however well drafted, often misses the main point: so long as the dominant means of engaging in political dialogue is through purchasing expensive television advertising, money will continue in one way or another to dominate American politics. And as a result, ideas will continue to play a diminished role.

[2000: his sighs in first debate with Bush cost him more than he gained in the actual debate of ideas]

In order to reclaim our birthright [of democratic freedom], we Americans must resolve to repair the systemic decay of the public forum.

The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy: It leads to dysfunctional journalism that fails to inform the people. And when the people are not informed, they cannot hold government accountable when it is incompetent, corrupt, or both.

Television ... presents to its viewers a much more fully formed representation of reality — without requiring the creative collaboration that words have always demanded.