ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
I see it as a toxic negative feedback loop. We want "entertainment value" with our news coverage, and that means ratcheting up the rhetoric and creating an us-versus-them mentality in politics. They know darn well that reporting on pragmatic, conciliatory effort is boring; they know a Jerry Springer culture wants fists flying. They know there's no ratings in reporting on common ground or the things that unite us instead of the things that divide us (even though in many cases, we have far more in common than we have that divide us).They are the pushers, but we're the ones with a needle in our arm. They're only selling what we buy. . .
The more people enjoy it, the more their ratings improve and the more they do it, raising (or lowering) the bar over and over again, reaching new highs (lows) in terms of how much they can show people on opposite sides hating each other's guts for what they believe and because of the "team" they support.
And that's part of the media problem; they clearly cover politics as a full-contact "team" sport as if you must either support Team Red or Team Blue, act as if your Team can do no wrong and the other Team can do no right, and be conditioned to believe the other Team is the Great Satan.
Lather, rinse, repeat -- like a dog chasing its tail in a circular motion that resembles something going down the drain.
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