At the gym this morning, the manager asked if I minded that he change the channel on the monitor in front of me to the news; the woman next to me had requested it.
“Of course not,” I said, and he changed it to Fox News. “Hey,” I said, jokingly, “that’s not the news, that’s Fox.”
“I requested Fox,” said the woman. Later she told me she watches Fox News, and reads Huffington Post, getting what she called both sides.
“But nothing in the middle?” I asked.
“The middle is where I make up my own mind,” she replied.
When, exactly, did we decide that, by getting misinformation from people with two opposing agendas, we could arrive at a good understanding of events?
Omniop 
I think first when cable TV was invented, and then the Internet. With so many biased choices, I also read several sources. Aren’t they all trying to mold public opinion in their own mercenary ways? I don’t read either Fox or Huffington, (even if I had TV I wouldn’t watch news stations, but I read a lot), and I occasionally scan them for their bias of omission. These sources, and many others, continue to polarize populations to the point where people hate each other, and that defeats what the news is for—the public good. If a story is important enough that you want to learn more, you have to wade through an awful lot of crap to get answers—and even then, who knows who’s jerking the puppet strings. Even science seems to have become biased–we’re never sure of what is a ‘fact.’
This subject has been a constant annoyance to me for years—that those of us in the middle who just want facts are being prodded to take up sides. Politicians and their pet news stations are harmful rather than helpful to a nation. We’re given such few choices.
Are there any news sources that you think are fair? There are a handful that seem to be an improvement over MSM.
There are the news agencies (Reuters, AP, etc.). The NY Times has a liberal slant, but is way more committed to trying to limit their biases to the editorial page than, say, the Huff Post or The Guardian. On the conservative side, there’s the Wall Street Journal, with the same caveats as the Times. I read them all on Google News, which you can customize to a large extent, plus get some unexpected wacky sources to spice up your day. It’s a truism that real objectivity is a daydream, but you can certainly get a lot closer than people seem to think in this age of worshipping relativism.
“Later she told me she watches Fox News, and reads Huffington Post, getting what she called both sides.”
Can’t explain it, but that struck me as hilarious and pathetic at the same time. 😕
Yup. That’s 21st century America, for better or worse, post-modernism gone viral.
Could almost be the script for a porn film.
Not a very good one, I think.
True