technology hasn’t had a wonderful impact on the substantiveness of our political conversations. Presidential debates used to be deeply nuanced and many hours long. Then radio and TV came along and bludgeoned substance with a soundbite assault to the death. On the other hand, sometimes entertainment is a tempting fishhook to bring the politically disinterested into the national conversation. Buzzfeed, for instance, is on its way to becoming a media empire, betting that serious politics and mindless celebrity lists can live side-by-side. Indeed, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith explained it best when he told me: “I think anybody who’s worked in the news business, at least since I think the Second World War, realizes that entertainment is more popular and more widely consumed than politics,” he argued. “I think probably more people were talking about Marilyn Monroe than about Dwight Eisenhower on any given day in the ’50s, too. I think that’s kind of the banal truth.”

Thoreau Warned Us About Ellen’s Oscar Selfie | TechCrunch Monday, March 3, 2014 @ 2:23pm