One of the things I enjoy about living in 21st century America where we have relative economic prosperity and technological innovation are all the choices available to me.
When I was a kid, we’d go to McDonald’s, and I could choose between the Big Mac, the Quarter Pounder, and the Filet-O-Fish. That was it. Today my options at the Golden Arches include hamburgers with all sorts of toppings such as bacon habanero ranch, chicken (grilled, crispy, or even nuggets), a McRib, wraps, salads, yogurt, not to mention multiple latte and smoothie flavors.
Of course, Mickey D’s isn’t the only fast food restaurant in town any more, and now I can go to Subway, Qdoba, Jack-in-the-Box, Jimmy John’s, Chick-fil-A, Culver’s, Five Guys, Noodles & Company, or Rally’s, none of which were around when I was young.
Henry Ford famously said you can have any color Model T you want, as long as it’s black. Today, your local car dealer can offer you shades of Smoky Topaz, Techno Pink, Lemonade Yellow, or Jalapeno Green. (I did not make any of those up!) There are plenty more product examples I could provide, but you get the picture.
Where I am going with this is that as I was growing up, our news came primarily from either ABC, CBS, or NBC, period. Now there’s Fox, CNN, and MSNBC on cable TV, plus a plethora of Internet sites too many to list. Overall, I think having more choices is better, but in this instance there is a downside.
Because these multiple news sources have a smaller share of the overall market than the big three networks from forty years ago, each of them are able to tailor their news toward the preferences of their audience. Even if they’re not editorializing, opinions still come out in how stories are presented. Further bias is demonstrated through what current events are covered (as well as what events are not covered).
Someone who gets their news from the Drudge Report, Breitbart, and the Gateway Pundit will get a totally different view of the world from their neighbor who frequents the Huffington Post, Salon, and Daily Kos. Those two people could check the news the same morning and end up thinking very different things happened the day before.
I consider myself a political junkie; however, I no longer enjoy engaging in political debates. So often when I talk with someone from the opposite side of the ideological spectrum, we just end up shouting past each other. It’s fun and intellectually stimulating to explore differing philosophies and understand why others come to opposing conclusions. It’s boring and uninteresting argue about what the facts are, and that’s what our political discourse seems to amount to today.
This situation isn’t going to reverse course anytime soon. In fact I would predict even more customization of our news. What’s to stop right-leaning news sources from dividing into (for lack of a better term) Tea Party and Establishment news channels? The left might separate into liberal and full-fledged progressive information sites.
Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. I say, in the future, everyone will have their own personal news source. And it won’t be pretty.
Respectfully…
Pete