Todd Gitlin blames the media for creating a self-fulfilling prophecy about Americans' lack of interest in politics: ...it’s not as though Kerry has been exactly quiet. The pundits may roll their eyes at Kerry’s prolixity, but the networks aren’t exactly giving Americans more than a nibble. Take the gigantic question of foreign policy. George W. Bush’s White House, Kerry said in Seattle on May 27, has “looked to force before exhausting diplomacy; they bullied when they should have persuaded. They've gone it alone when they should have assembled a whole team. They have hoped for the best when they should have prepared for the worst. They've made America less safe than we should be in a dangerous world. In short, they have undermined the legacy of generations of American leadership, and that is what we must restore, and that is what I will restore. “Shredding alliances is not the way to win the war on terror, or even to make America safer. As president, my No. 1 security goal will be to prevent the terrorists from gaining weapons of mass murder, and our overriding mission will be to disrupt and destroy their terrorist cells. Because al-Qaeda is a network with many branches, we have to take the fight to the enemy on every continent -- smartly. And we have to enlist other countries in that cause.” Kerry went on in this vein for 3,500 words. And the night of this speech, how many did America’s still dominant news channels convey? ABC: 28 words. NBC: 42 words. CBS: 43 words.