The American Spectator

TAS Live

(Page 5 of 10)

TAS: But you did research the media for "Ambush at Fort Bragg." br> Tom Wolfe: I did. In finding out how they did sting operations. It is a story about the media rather than those soldiers. The producer prefigures Mary Mapes. The big story in television news that hasn't been fully told is the producers. In that story Irv Durtscher resents the fact that he is doing all the work but this airhead Mary Carey gets all the publicity, all the salary, all the celebrity, all the credit. /p> p> TAS: What do you predict for 21st-century journalism? br> Tom Wolfe: I have no predictions. But I am struck by one thing: Try to think of a single important idea that has ever come out of these media. The fact is they are technically less advanced than print at getting across ideas and theories and simply explaining things in a way that can change history. /p>

I am struck by the fact that Karl Marx, this unpleasant man sitting alone in the British museum writing these abstruse essays, really did change the world. Look at Darwin. My God, what a powerful theory. Incidentally, I give that one about 40 more years, and it will go down in flames.

p> TAS: Why 40 years? br>

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