In our time, of course, fact has eroded to factoid; radio "play lists" are deter mined ahead of time by market research, and so-called "independent films can cost millions of dollars to produce. Whether we focus on bits of information or whole symphonies, the products of today's culture are, for the most part, created in ways alien to and not well understood by consumers and distributed at a faster pace through rapidly expanding and, for the most part, highly controlled outlets of distribution in addition to being interpreted by a handful of experts whose judgment of quality is secondary to their assessment of potential market value. Likewise, mil- lions of Web sites fragment culture, and together with the forces named above, they contribute to an ever thinner cacophony of culture rather than providing the basis for a rational public education and considered public deliberation. But Mills apparently thought that he could single-handedly jam this machinery.