My Hypothesis. Biased news (both left and right) radicalizes our fellow Americans. In my own (admittedly limited) research, I find otherwise reasonable, intelligent, good-hearted people believe some crazy crap and/or support extreme positions because they “live” on a continuous diet of highly partisan Fox News, or MSNBC, or whatever. Fewer radicalized Americans would be a good thing, perhaps even a “silver bullet” in reducing the divisiveness in our Nation.
How do we get people out of their radicalized echo chambers?
News … biased and otherwise … lives under the protection of Freedom of Speech and of the Press. A good thing.
But news also survives thanks to advertising revenues. Particularly Cable News. It seems impractical and/or ineffective to go after Cable News itself. We need to choke off the ad revenue for the most egregiously biased Cable News networks.
A widespread boycott by centrists (both left and right leaning) of advertisers on biased Cable News networks might get their attention. We might nudge media towards non-partisan, unbiased, inevitably more centrist “news?” I don’t know … but maybe. If that happened, would it reduce the number of our fellow Americans who hold extreme views? I don’t know … but maybe.
Do you think it’s worth a try?
What do you think the impact would be on reducing biased news (0=Low, 10=High)?
How practical is implementing a boycott (0=Snowball’s Chance in Hell, 10=Slam Dunk).
Do you have a better idea?
Discover more from Reed Harrison's
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I think a significant challenge will be in coming to agreement on identifying content that truly is biased. Each extreme side is now entirely convinced that only the other side is biased, and centrists likely think that both more extreme sides are. I have no magic bullet in mind to solve this dilemma. It is certainly not a government agency that should act as arbiter, but it is not clear who should.
Hi Hugh, Hope this finds you well. All good with me. Thx for the thoughts on my post and for subscribing to my blog. I agree it’s a hard problem … but I bet we could figure it out. I’m reading Steven Brill’s The Death of Truth and it has some ideas. More to follow when I finish the book. Reed