I watch portions of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, CNN’s “New Day” along with “Fox and Friends” most mornings. I know people who watch only one of the three exclusively. Some even tape the program so they can watch it again and share content with others. What I find very interesting is how the hosts identify what is being presented and their use of hypotheticals in how they present their content.
“Breaking News” is now the standard for both Fox and CNN to grab your attention. Most times there is nothing “breaking” about it other than a way to entice you to watch. It has lost its charm and I certainly don’t perk up at the banner and announcement anymore. What I do is ask myself is if in fact it is “news” or just another piece of opinion or analysis? Too often, especially on CNN and MSNBC, the lines between fact based reporting and opinion are obscure at best and non-existent at worse. The spread of opinion as fact that flows through those watching only confirms Nancy Pelosi’s excellent explanation of how falsehoods can become “truths” through constant and “professional” communication. (https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4754168/pelosi-explaining-smear-tactics).
Most alarming for me is the use of hypothetical adjectives. “If it’s true…” can be followed by the most outrageous statement and spread into the maelstrom of information networks. It does no matter at that point if in fact it is true because someone somewhere is going to run with it. There are so many examples of wild swinging stories the latest of which is the encounter of a high school student with a drum beating man.
I find the use of hypotheticals is more pronounced on the left leaning stations. How many times did we hear that President Trump is “thinking about” or “possibly taking action” or “might consider” and tagging these conjectures with “creating a Constitutional crisis” to ramp up the reaction. He still hasn’t fired Mueller for Pete’s sake!
Unfortunately, consumers of these programs are the result of our deteriorated educational system. Critical thinking applied to information is not high on the list of skills being taught. In fact, I doubt if anyone in school over the past 30 years has even heard of Marshal McLuhan who prophetically said,
“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.”
How voters arrive at their decision in the ballot box is one of the most important issues of the day. So much has been said about “fake news”, and the censoring of social media to address it that we are not getting to the nub of the issue which is, the consumer must be vigilant in basing their decision on incontrovertible facts that they and they alone, form an opinion around. Failure to do so will doom our Democracy which is predicated on an informed electorate.
Current Day Publius 