While reading Martin Marger's chapter on the mass media, all I could hear was Ralph Nader's voice speaking the words.

This chapter is an excellent summary of what is wrong with the mass media. There is a lot wrong with it. However, just like Nader, Marger decides to simply give us the bad points, and not only omit the good points, but also neglect to pose any kind of suggestion on how we can improve the system. (To Ralph's credit, he did make some suggestions on how to fix our system, albeit some entirely useless suggestions).

Of course there are problems with the media. There are problems everywhere in life. But what separates the helpful from the helpless is the simple fact that the helpful suggest ways to fix the system. The helpless merely say that the system is broken.

Want a way to fix the media? Turn it off. Reach over, take the remote, and turn off "Survivor" or "The Weakest Link." It's as easy as that. As if I haven't been drilling this point home enough previously, the power is in our hands. If we continue watching and listening to what the media is spewing out, the system will stay the way it is. But if we do turn the TV off, the media has lost all its power over us.

I can already hear the detractors. "I'm only one person, how would it help if I turned off 'When Animals Attack Vol. 12'?" That argument sounds decidedly similar to "How does it help if I vote for this person? I only have one vote!" And it's true. If only one person changes, nothing will happen. But if everybody that complained about this system actually stood up and did something about it, the media would change faster than John Ashcroft can take away civil rights.