Orange Mecanique..

Will a new TV station with a Aounist perspective be good or bad for Lebanon?

I read today a post by my friend Kais who all but thrashes OTV, the proposed TV station that will promulgate a Aounist world view to Lebanese audiences all over the world.
Kais is not exactly a fan as his post clearly shows, but the topic sparks a wider debate: How healthy is it for every party to have its own media outlets?

The classic democratic argument has always been one of laissez-faire. You basically let everyone say whatever they want, and the rational voter will then, after listening to all the points of view, make up her mind and let her choice be known in the ballot box. Neat isn’t it?

Unfortunately, as the Information age has shown us, we did’nt turn out to be homo-rationalus after all; we have our views of the world and we like to listen to what like-minded people have to say. In a landmark article in the New York Times, The Age of Political Segregation, David Brooks observes:

Once you’ve joined a side, the information age makes it easier for you to surround yourself with people like yourself. And if there is one thing we have learned over the past generation, it’s that we are really into self-validation.

We don’t only want radio programs and Web sites from members of our side — we want to live near people like ourselves. Information age workers aren’t tied down to a mine, a port or a factory. They have more opportunities to shop for a place to live, and they tend to cluster in places where people share their cultural aesthetic and, as it turns out, political values. So every place becomes more like itself, and the cultural divides between places become stark. The information age was supposed to make distance dead, but because of clustering, geography becomes more important.

David Brooks was writing about Liberal Vs. Conservative America, but as we all know, this applies very well to Lebanon. On the same topic, Cate Malek writes about the important concept of Escalation:

escalation is a psychological process that causes the parties involved in a conflict to use more and more extreme measures to try to “beat” their opponents. Escalation begins when one party believes the other party has deliberately provoked them. They retaliate, setting off a vicious cycle. As a conflict escalates, the disputants begin to stereotype each other. They cut off communication with the other side and begin to associate only with their own side. The lack of communication contributes to increased misunderstandings and distrust of the other side.

Was Kais escalating? Some people will say: No, Aoun’s TV will indeed be “…stinky for the country, which would have to deal with his toxic political waste matter, caused by a chronic diarrhea of the mouth.”

But now the other side will escalate in response, and now they have a TV station. So, is that a good thing or a bad thing?