Well, the April 19 edition of TV Guide has finally used the liberals’ ultimate weapon of last resort, to defend the indefensible in an article entitled “Is TV Starting a New Civil War?” The weapon? “They all do it.”
In a U.S. torn by dissent over health care, immigration and Barack Obama, rhetorical rage is the new norm. Just turn on Fox News and MSNBC. Partisan talkers like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity on the conservative-leaning FNC and Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz on their liberal counterpart MSNBC inflame their eager fans with colorful, merciless and sometimes misleading attacks on the opposition.
A generation ago, no matter how divided their politics, Americans got their news from the same source–“the lame stream media,” to quote Fox contributor Sarah Palin. Almost the entire country was watching back in 1968 when CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite declared the Vietnam War not winnable. Four years later, he was deemed the most trusted man in America.
The advent of politically partisan cable news networks changed the game. If people want to hear that Obama is heroically rescuing our financially strapped nation–or that he’s driving it into bankruptcy and socialism–they can turn to the network that suits their ideology and soak in the vitriol.
There is no rational comparison between Fox News Channel and MSNBC. “Fair and Balanced” is not just a slogan, it’s a fact. That it doesn’t go down easy for those who see the broadcast networks and CNN as unbiased presenters of the facts is not surprising. Count up the number of conservatives on any of the other “news” organizations and then compare it with the regular parade of liberals on Fox News and, no doubt, combined, you won’t even come close.
The article draws another false parallel. The “Tea Party” activists, a grassroots, bottom up gathering of Democrats, independents and conservatives demanding that their representatives actually represent them, are compared to the minority of a minority.
So far the political anger has remained mostly verbal on both sides. “There seems to be no research to suggest that listening to media, no matter how strident, incites people to actual violence,” says Jamieson. “It’s likely that people who engage in such acts don’t need television to get them there.” Nonetheless, hate-group expert Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported a recent resurgence of violent militia groups. “It’s not helpful when commentators like Glenn Beck talk about FEMA running concentration camps,” he says. “Some listeners believe the fairy tales.” Beck consistently tells his followers to avoid violence.
But words can hurt. “The effect of extreme commentary on the public agenda is to tie the hands of legislators,” suggests Tim Mak of the conservative website FrumForum, created by former George W. Bush speech writer David Frum. “If conservative commentators say that liberals want to kill our grandmothers and they’re Marxist, Fascist tyrants, like Beck often does, how can there be meaningful cooperation between Republicans and Democrats on legislation? It’s much harder to act in a moderating, bipartisan way.”
So would it be better for the country if the Becks and Olbermanns turned down the volume? As Jamieson puts it: “If people are polarized by opinion commentary and elect individuals who have that attitude, you’re increasing the likelihood that they won’t compromise. It’s counterproductive.”
Numbers, the ever-growing, superior ratings for Fox, and the ongoing abandonment of the former titans of America’s news, along with its cable counterparts, say it all. It might behoove TV Guide to shake off its nostalgia for the past and get with the growing majority that now has a firm grasp of the obvious.
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