What Salvageable says in his post is true, but I think it important to add several points.
1. Most of the news media is owned by a small number of crony capitalists. That is the major reason news organizations like CNN and MSNBC are losing viewers. They are so partisan that Donald Trump was able to make it obvious.
2. Consuming the news properly requires wisdom, virtue, and understanding. That is, when we learn how to be good citizens, we should learn how to consume the news. Unfortunately, since we are taught in institutions run by politicians, fewer of us learn how to be good citizens either as well or as soon as we should.
3. Because the internet now has a dominant role in news consumption, the monopolization of the internet by a few large corporations makes it easier for a small number of crony capitalists to control what we see and hear in the news.
We forget that the news reports we trust come to us from the entertainment industry. Especially in this post-modern age, when we acknowledge that everyone has a bias and label our news sources as liberal or conservative, we overlook the reality that every news provider cares most about ratings and market share. Facts are facts, no matter who says them. A news outfit caught in a deliberate lie loses audience and therefore loses sponsors and income. What matters most about the news is making it interesting—capturing attention and keeping people hooked on the news. The past is past, and the future has not arrived. Only today brings in money for today’s purveyors of the daily news.
A good political fight is worthy news, no matter which side is right and which is wrong. A closely-contested election, with polls showing a virtual tie between the candidates makes a better story than…
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