Have you ever found yourself in a political conversation regurgitating talking points from your favorite TV news pundits like Brian Stetler, Sean Hannity, Rachael Maddow, etc? You really, really need to stop doing that.
It's time for you to be an adult and actually formulate an opinion of your own. An opinion of substance backed in reason, logic, and facts cannot be conceived without consuming your news from multiple media outlets that favor BOTH sides of the partisan aisle. Strangely enough, you'll find the truth always seems to fall somewhere in the middle.
I know what I'm asking may be difficult, I truly understand that. The majority of Liberals, Conservatives, Communists, Libertarians, Anarchists, and the Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality (sorry I couldn't help myself), are deeply rooted in their respective ideologies and convincing them to slash their media outlet exclusivity is like taking PornHub away from a 14 year old.
We need our comfort zone, our sweet release, the voice on TV that makes us feel confident in our opinions, that helps reinforce our beliefs further proving that everyone else is uninformed. Why leave the echo chamber? It's a warm and fuzzy circle jerk where we all agree with each other. Perfect.
But hear me out. If you choose to continue your routine of coming home, plopping on the couch, and exclusively binge watching FOX News or CNN, as opposed to reading articles from multiple outlets online during the day/night/whenever, you have failed to be a truly informed citizen.
The reason is this: your favorite news network is BIAS. Don't let anyone allow you to think otherwise. News networks are owned by large corporations with leadership that injects their own political ideals into their company. Those ideals don't just trickle, they waterfall down to the news networks. The saddest part is, it's painfully obvious.
It's really simple, news is presented to you from a partisan angle and then a panel of pundits from that same angle all weigh in with their opinions. Sometimes there may be someone who represents the other end of the political spectrum but most of the time they are scoffed at and shouted down. Guys.... that's not news. That's entertainment with a political agenda disguised as fair and balanced discussion. This format is repeated on all of the cable news networks.
Not to say there aren't the actual straight news blocks on these networks which certainly do exist. I'm referring to programs mixing news with political commentary which are taking up more and more air time in my opinion.
The fact of the matter is that there are points on both sides that make a lot of sense. There isn't a party that has all of the answers and there certainly isn't a party that's more virtuous. Billionaires give to both Republicans and Democrats, there are racists in both parties, and there are leaders within both parties that do not have our best interest in mind. Everything comes down to money and control.
There's two really excellent sites that I recommend you check out:
-makeuseof.com
-mediabiasfactcheck.com/tag/check-political-bias-media-site
Do yourself a favor and give them a chance. They help to give you an understanding of where all the news networks lean in terms of bias. Remember, all news is bias in some way or another.
Remember, be your own person. Don't spew other people's opinions. Have your own take. Look at how networks, news outlets, etc. are reporting the same story and then cross reference that data for overlapping factual info. Identify trivial minutia (which is really the author's opinion bleeding into the article) and erase it from your mind. Facts matter, they are OBJECTIVE. Opinions don't, they are SUBJECTIVE.
I'll leave you with this. It's an excellent chart from makeuseof.com that illustrates my point:
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