Monday, November 27, 2000
I joked about the FOX news claims of being "fair and balanced" a couple of days ago, and Slate has an article about the news channel as well saying that we shouldn't really care about whether it's biased or not.
I agree to the point that there's no problem with listening to biased sources -- in fact, I believe that it's impossible for a news source to be completely unbiased, and it's worthwhile trying to get in multiple points of view because of it. I don't really believe that there is a far-left monopoly in the media though -- and I think FOX, if anything, reinforces my belief in the opposite direction. I do think it's a problem if we have all of the left-leaning folks listening to NPR and watching CNN and all of the right-leaning folks listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching FOX News, however, as we'll increasingly not only disagree on issues, but will share even less and less of a vocabulary on items.
I think the one positive thing about the media explosion in the internet era is that there are a multitude of voices -- but I think it's a challenge for us to focus on multiple signals, not just the ones that reinforce our world view. I know I don't always succeed -- but it's a long term challenge, and probably a better thing to have too much, and not enough, given a filter.
I agree to the point that there's no problem with listening to biased sources -- in fact, I believe that it's impossible for a news source to be completely unbiased, and it's worthwhile trying to get in multiple points of view because of it. I don't really believe that there is a far-left monopoly in the media though -- and I think FOX, if anything, reinforces my belief in the opposite direction. I do think it's a problem if we have all of the left-leaning folks listening to NPR and watching CNN and all of the right-leaning folks listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching FOX News, however, as we'll increasingly not only disagree on issues, but will share even less and less of a vocabulary on items.
I think the one positive thing about the media explosion in the internet era is that there are a multitude of voices -- but I think it's a challenge for us to focus on multiple signals, not just the ones that reinforce our world view. I know I don't always succeed -- but it's a long term challenge, and probably a better thing to have too much, and not enough, given a filter.
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