Political Amnesia Is the Enemy

By Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org. Posted May 27, 2006.

No wonder some studies find that news viewers rapidly forget what they have just seen -- that's the intention.

We all know, all of us in America anyway, that Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer. It's about the downtime ahead, the vacation that's coming, the shutting down of the serious in anticipation of fun in the sun.

Officially, it is also about honoring the dead, and there will be parades by veterans and flags flying on TV newscasts. Most of it is set in the present with little referencing of the past or memory itself.