The media critic whose Amusing Ourselves to Death Bob raises in dialogue 24 as a diagnosis to test against McLuhan's. Cameron grants the thesis but keeps McLuhan at a distance from it — McLuhan "went in different directions from what Postman wanted to do" — and places Postman with the Etc. / General Semantics milieu he judges a dead end. For Bob, Postman's real error is the word "amusing": people are not entertaining themselves but "exploring the cul-de-sac with no help," which is a different, grimmer thing.
Across the dialogues
Enters as the near-miss — his "amusing ourselves to death" is accepted but held apart from McLuhan, and filed with the General Semantics crowd that "doesn't lead anywhere"
Postman's thesis enters as the foil — "amusing ourselves to death" is the popular account of the media condition that Bob and Cameron will accept only to correct, since for them the compulsion is not amusement but a directionless search through the cul-de-sac.
"do you think that is correct when Postman said we're amusing ourselves to death?"
Cameron separates the two media critics — the shared diagnosis notwithstanding, McLuhan's path diverges from Postman's, whom Cameron files with the General Semantics crowd that "doesn't lead anywhere."
"McLuhan went in different directions from what Postman wanted to do."
Connections
Cameron accepts "amusing ourselves to death" but says McLuhan went in different directions than Postman.