Election 2024 - Here We Go Again

In general I'm not a fan of getting into political arguments or even discussions for that matter. They usually don't end well, unless of course you are both coming from the same side. Just typing out that sentence and using the word side, shows where we are today.

Apparently, to have a voice today, in particular in the media, you must choose a side. Once you've proclaimed yourself left or right, liberal or conservative, then you must project only from that perspective.

Now I'm not going to lump all networks or local news stations into this, although I'm sure some have a slanted view more than others. I would guess this would be dictated by the TV market and the political and social behaviors of the larger part of that audience.

On the network side of traditional broadcast TV, CBS, NBC, ABC & FOX, I'm not sure I can say the same. While not obvious about it, in my opinion, I can pretty much gauge the bias in some of these broadcasts whether conservative or liberal (terms I actually do not like, but make it clearer to the reader).

However, when we get to cable news networks, herein lies the more often purposeful presentations. They may as well just have flags and team logos and memberships. To be clear, I do not belong to a party. I'm a very sickened independent of the disingenuousness of politicians and even more so by some of the cable news operations in this country.

Our former president's term, "Fake News", wasn't maybe as off base as it sounded, except it was being used to describe news stories about him that he didn't like. Through fact checking what we discovered were that some were fabricated or slanted, but others("fake news stories") were actually true.

My point here however, isn't really going to begin to tackle which network contorts the truth more or flat out misinforms. I feel after looking at people repost things from the plethora of cable news outlets, (FOX, MSNBC, CNN, Newsmax, One America News Network etc.) that they are often as guilty as anyone for inciting the growing division and anger in this country. They have various hosts who engage in making themselves more important than with what they are supposed to be informing viewers of.... ......true......factual.....information. After all, it's a ratings game. That's the nature of the beast.

The problem with the beast, is that it is also a very significant reason this country can't find it's way out of its current state of a bad social disease. The anger, the hate and vitriol that one can find in seconds on X or Facebook within the comments of any political post, is disheartening to say the least.

So let me get to my point(I wish you would Chris). I do believe in free speech. It's a very important part of the fabric that once made this country great. I don't like many of the things put out in the media and especially social media, but I do think by censoring, you are opening up a very slippery slope to an even more dangerous place.

I don't have to care about or believe in what you think. I don't have to read it, or watch it, or listen to it. The problem is, it's the responsibility in each and every one of us to do the fact checking. We have become lazy. We read something and we quickly accept it as fact, or less likely, fiction. We wait for others to tell us if it's the truth or not.

While maybe an extreme analogy, but would you let someone point a gun at your head and pull the trigger if they told you it wasn't loaded? I don't know about you but that's a lot of trust. Maybe if I investigated and looked into each chamber and saw it was empty I would play along. The point being, too many of us continue to swallow the negative reporting from either side as truth.

I want to take this conversation to a different place. I don't care what's true or not, if it's impact doesn't take on a significantly dangerous level in society, the likes of which we saw at the Capitol. The bottom line is, many of these news outlets, nor those who host them( I call them hosts because they perform more like they are on a game show than a news show) give two you know whats about you or us. If they did, they would make more of a point of finding out why the other side doesn't agree with them. Why are they unhappy? What do Republicans fear about Democrats and vice versa?

What do they do? They keep pointing fingers at each other. Mocking the leadership of both sides as if they are the enemy. We are supposed to all be on the same team. This is still supposed to be The United States of America. We don't have to agree on everything, but respect the whole, before you throw your entire self into just a part or a faction of an ideology.

Every day, all I see on social media are people making claims that the other side has or is going to ruin the country. This is going nowhere fast and much of the cable news media does nothing but feed the public hunger for hate and division.

Let me make a very simple analogy. If a couple has been married for many years and always made it work....even with some differences of opinion(not exactly unheard of in marriage), but suddenly an issue comes up that seems to drive a wedge between them like never before. Usually they have enough respect for the marriage and each other and the years they invested, to try and save it. The next step is usually a marriage counselor.

A marriage counselor is there to neutralize, while each side gets to say its part. They try and create an environment in which both sides can speak freely to each other about what's bothering and concerning them. The counselor tries to make both sides more empathetic. It's not just about he did this to me or she doesn't do this to me. Typically things happen because one side is not listening or not communicating in a productive and honest manner.

To me, the various cable news outlets should be acting as marriage counselors for the divided people of this country. They should be creating a place where you hear both sides in the same forum. Where maybe.......just maybe, someone listens instead of just shouting back what they believe to be true. Perhaps accepting and understanding compromise. Compromise???!!! What's that? Must be something new. Sounds dangerous.

If I had to further the analogy, I would say most of these cable news shows act more like divorce attorneys(no offense to divorce attorneys). They just feed their client, or in this case political party of choice, with what they want to hear, not what might be good for the marriage, aka, the country.

Finally. If you want us to continue on the path to become the divided states then continue to sling anger and hate at people who don't agree with you. That will certainly speed up the process. If you choose that, just please do me a favor and don't refer to yourself as an American or someone that cares about the future of the United States.

If on the other hand, you want to work on bringing pride back to this country, save the marriage so to speak. Then please stop the trash talk and posting things that only antagonize and try to hurt or demean, but don't create productive discussion.

If you care about us or the USA, then I say to the media outlets, it's time to take responsibility for what you broadcast and make available to the public. If I turn to MSNBC I should not see the majority of people being interviewed having the same views and opinions(rare occasions guests from both sides do appear). The same goes for CNN & FOX News. I will not even bother to mention some of the other fringe networks masquerading as news channels when they are nothing more than propaganda channels feeding the lambs. Let's have a network that removes most of the adjectives and adverbs when telling the story of the days political news. Maybe they are just no longer capable. Leave the deciding of the facts to the viewer.

It's easy to take the path of least resistance and give your audience what they WANT to hear. It's a lot harder to give them what they NEED to hear.

Let's stop this trajectory of creating the Divided States of America and figure out a way to co-exist with our differences in a more respectful and I might add mature manner.

Sunshine Always.

Before I get going into the heart of this post, I just wanted to take a moment and preface it with the definitions of two labels being used in this country politically. If you look at the actual definitions you might find some of it amusing as well as contradicting to how some of us are labeling. Maybe best not to label at all and sound more intelligent.