Michelle answers:
American commercial Media companies are not very good, and FOX is the worst. They are hardly alone.
Many of the modern ‘news’ shows are sacrificing objectivity–in an effort to boost their ratings and maximize profits–by appealing to the lowest common denominator. The high percentage of viewers that only watch one or the other of the popular, one-dimensional news ‘networks’ would seem to confirm this. It is an unfortunate fact that, in these days of declining newspaper readership, most Americans tend to get their news from TV.
The lowest common denominator, in this context, are the folks who believe everything on FOX, Al Jazeera, the Rush Limbaugh Show, or MSNBC’s Ed Shultz Show, along other supporting programming. Are they just ditto-heads, or fellow-travelers, who are either unwilling or incapable of thinking for themselves, or is it merely intellectual laziness? Does watching shows that exclusively present only one, narrow view, effectively eliminate the need to utilize judgement and actually THINK about things?
Anyone out there who only gets their ‘news’ from one or two similar sources, answer this question: Does listening to the ‘other side’ of the picture make you upset and makes you want to turn it off and watch that which you already agree with? Be honest. If so, you are part of the problem.
To my mind, this phenomenon is comparable to the mindset one still sees in the Russian Federation. Large numbers of former Soviet citizens long for the ‘good old days’ when they were told what to think and weren’t bombarded with a multitude of difficult choices. It is much easier and comforting to only be subjected to one opinion, especially when all the options appear, on the surface, to be equally unpalatable.
You’ve heard of the penitentiary prisoners who, after being released from a period of extended incarceration, commit another crime, not because they need to, but because they want to go back to prison? They do this because, in jail, they are told what to do each minute and therefore don’t have to do any thinking.
The best, most unbiased televised news programming can be found on PBS, Public Television. This is because it is non-commercial, doesn’t appeal to the lowest common denominator, and takes a truly balanced approach to coverage. Hard-core Conservatives will protest that it has a ‘Liberal Bias’ but their protests are often similar to the woman who claims that she doesn’t take a good picture.
The PBS News Hour deals with the stories of the day in-depth and presents both sides through interviews with respected journalists and experts of differing opinions. The other news shows do have opposing sides on debating the issues, but they usually choose the extremes from both camps because it makes for good TV. Moderate, centrist views are seldom heard because reasonable coverage does nothing for ratings.
While I enjoy many of the opinion shows on MSNBC and FOX, neither can be considered fair and balanced even though they claim to be. CNN tries its best to be fair and balanced, but their coverage is often simplistic and they depend far to much on “Your Opinion” as they are always quoting Facebook and Twitter. If I wanted the opinion of fatcat69 or cool4dudes I could just hit the BLOG’s. Such nonsense is inappropriate for a supposed ‘News’ show.
But the best advice is to peruse all the various venues and supplement it with reading history to gain a wider view, It is also good to watch BBC once in a while to gain a perspective outside of the USA.
You are liable to get some responses from folks saying things like “FOX is the only one that tells the truth” or “MSNBC is the only fair one” but these are opinions of partisans and similar to what you hear when you ask what sports team is the best. Conservatives like FOX, Liberals like MSNBC, but many of those on both sides are not objective enough to recognize that it is the same as people in Pittsburgh liking the Steelers and in Cleveland liking the Browns. In this context, watching PBS is like watching Sports Center as you are going to get a more balanced view of the respective teams.
The main point is to diversify your sources and never rely on just one for your information. More is better in the area of information gathering, and those who get all their news from one source are just ditto-heads who only feel comfortable hearing what they already agree with and are not independent thinkers. Watch and read everything and think for yourself would be my advice.
PS: Another option would be to join discussion forums such as the one below to discuss with others those topics you find of interest. It is amazing how much one can gain from the give and take of conversation as opposed to the passive activity of merely watching the news.
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