The freak show never leaves town

Great column by the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger who, while somewhat a prude, pretty much nails it on how the modern media environment makes it nearly impossible to escape the Justin Biebers and Miley Cyruses of the world:

Some will say the technology that dunks you in a river of electronic slop also creates access to a virtual Library of Alexandria of great music, movies and books. And if you're really afraid your life is going down the digital drain, you can get out into the real world and do some good, with real people.

But even if you turn yourself into a human spam filter, there is a sense that a gale of sleaze is blowing through American life day and night. ... Yes, you can hide, but eventually the scuzz squads will find you and erase your tiny Kindle Paperwhite. ...

The postmodernists who can explain away anything would reassure us that this is all hardly different than the traveling freak shows of the 19th century, when simple curiosity made people pay to enter the tent and see P.T. Barnum's "monkey man." But that misses the new reality. The freak show left town for a year. Now it's our daily bread.