The Power to Destroy

We were out for dinner, and got to see news on various TV channels all at once. Captioned.

The slant on the political news remains obvious, even after 20-30 years of being graded on it.  If anything, it is more obvious. That's a whole new generation of journalists, and with their turnover, more like 5-6 generations.  From this I conclude that they don't really care to self-monitor for evenhandedness. They don't even check. They have concluded that their POV is the one the public should see in order to really understand what is happening in politics.

Well, a lot of people in a lot of different times and places have thought exactly that as well. Not an attractive record, there.

I noticed something else as well. I saw nothing of building up ideas or people they would presumably like. No sound bites from inspiring advocates, no celebrations of small victories of causes. (Perhaps they just leave that to NPR.) Just a steady stream of dark shadows painted around the ideas and people they don't like.

I am sure their audience has no idea how this affects them, and remain convinced that they study the issues and think for themselves. By which they mean nothing more than "Well, I don't believe everything, and sometimes they go too far."

As examples: the national media, even collectively, has been unable to convince a majority of Americans that Obama has been correct in his ideas on medical insurance, on immigration, on foreign policy, on energy policy. But they have been able to convince a majority of them that those who have opposed him on any of these issues are bad and stupid. No power to build, only power to destroy.

Three-year-olds also have that power, kicking over the towers of their older siblings.