National TV media, social media serving poison to us all
Left, right, center, moderate, conservative, liberal, green, progressive … whatever you call yourself (or whatever others call you), we think many of us can at least agree that our rehetoric in America — our so-called collective “discussion” driven mostly by the national media controlled by politics and driven by social media — has been poisoned.
Wednesday’s shooting of a congressman and four others outside of Washington, D.C. is just one incident in a growing pile of evidence that our national discourse has hit new lows.
But we’re not pointing fingers at any one politician, though we’d argue that Congress has become a huge source of frustration and anger for many Americans, and last year’s presidential campaign was as ugly as ever we’ve seen in our lifetime.
We believe the national broadcast press, combined with the bottomless pit called social media, are driving our discourse into the ground.
The man accused of Wednesday’s shootings posted rantings on social media about America, her politics and her president … meaning those people on the fringes who may be unstable are obsessing over the incessant “breaking news” and angry rhetoric and reacting with violence.
Everything is breaking news today.
Everything.
Many of those in the media who dictate the talk in and about America, it seems, are bent on destroying its virtues … and its values.
They fill their broadcasts with adjectives and comments that heighten disagreement, that amplify diviviseness.
All we’re saying is, be more responsible … and darn it, be objective. Stop talking over your guests because they didn’t say what you want to hear.
And we’ve never seen so much animosity between and among members of the media themselves. Now, they’re even going after each others advertisers.
Their entire “news” programs are dedicated to attacking and degrading each other.
“It’s all bullsh … t,” a 92-year-old, World War II veteran told us recently upon answering the question, “What’s happened to America?”
We agree. We believe the national broadcast media needs to be more accountable … and that starts with it making itself more accountable.
Our political leaders must be more responsible with what they say and how they say it.
What’s more, social media needs to have more limits because, let’s face it folks, people who hate and want to cause nothing but violence — those who do not value life — are using social media and the internet to the extreme to spread their venom and brainwash the weakest among us.
America, thanks to some in the national media, and to politicans, has become shrouded in cynicism, distrust … and outright hatred.
As one columnist recently put it: This nation is going to hell.
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