1. I have not said anything about Baltimore because Neil Postman.
2. The only way to fight our sinful craving for our culture’s version of perfection and acceptance is the gospel of grace which frees us to laugh at our inadequacies and smile at our failures.
3. Our public registrations of outrage and self-righteous opinion on the newest news generated by those paid to get us worked up are barely indistinguishable from the same that happened months ago which we no longer care about.
4. The church needs to stand firm in its belief that a tree falling in the woods does indeed make a sound even if no one hears it.
5. We assume we know enough and can speak intelligently about issues far from us experientially and geographically because we have read about them on the Internet. We are no different than our parents who kept sending us conspiracy theories via their aol address.
6. I’ve never eaten a pizza I didn’t think was worth my time.
7. Once you realize the news is designed to entertain you and that you want to be entertained by it, then you can be free.
8. And just like that, the Cardinals have the best record in baseball. And that is objectively true news.
9. Many of you prayed for my wife to find a job. And it worked. Please feel free to do the same for me.
10. You can admit to all our culture’s agreed upon sins and still be the biggest jerk in the room.
Echoes and Stars 
Once you realize the news is designed to entertain you and that you want to be entertained by it, then you can be free.
Necessary, but not sufficient. I’ve found this Neil Postman observation does more to stiffen my spine: broadcasters are the sellers, advertisers are the buyers, viewers are the product.
So true. So sadly true.
In Postman’s time ads were placed right after (or adjacent to) stories about death and war. Just now I had a video ad start playing in the middle of a story about the Baltimore riots, but first it forced me to click an “X” to get rid of a car ad that can obscured the whole screen.
And if you’re lucky the headline isn’t intentionally misleading.
#4 – Can you expand just a bit on this? Just to make sure I’m understanding?
We often act as if God is only doing something through men we with PR.
Ok thanks Matt. Kind of like if our “works” as a church aren’t posted on FB, did they ever really happen?
Exactly
Really like #4… “The only way to fight our sinful craving for our culture’s version of perfection and acceptance is the gospel of grace which frees us to laugh at our inadequacies and smile at our failures.”
…I’m trying to chuckle more….