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With Fox News, hundreds of Internet websites and thousands of right wing oriented talk radio stations, the American right, and the Republican party, have built a trap for themselves, a closed loop of self confirming views that allows no contradiction and little development of contrary thought.
What about the rest of America, the center and the so called left? Well, yes, they too can be trapped by limited thinking, with information from the outside world repressed, but there is a big difference. The other side of the spectrum has, to a large degree, embraced the ideal of free inquiry. As for the journalistic component, newspapers and other outlets that appeal to Democrats are, nonetheless, quite prepared to take them down, too, if the evidence of wrong doing appears and can be reasonably confirmed. (Who would argue that the so called “eastern media” was kind to Bill Clinton?)
We start from the fact that humans are biased and, whether academic inquiry, book length treatment or the national evening newscasts, they are all produced by humans. We all have our acquired way of viewing the world and we all tend to seek evidence, however empirical that evidence might be, to back up what we believed previously. We know the truth and we seek to verify it, in other words.
Ideally, we might set out to prove something we believe to be true, but we must then be willing to change, to see new information and come to different conclusions. This is difficult and human beings don’t like it. It does happen, however, and it must happen if we are to use facts as the basis for understanding, not just argument. Some in the news media say their job is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”. That means both the ability and the fact of speaking truth to power. The right does not accept this function. It only wants confirmation.
The modern Republican movement in America draws its energy from the rise of the very limited welfare state that was put in place by Democratic presidents from FDR through Lyndon Johnson. During this time period, the eastern states were dominant in population, in business and industry and in finance. Those states, in effect, ran America while the colossus of California grew in the west and the power of a state like Texas, and the entire old south, slumbered along, awaiting the moment for an awakening. The eastern states also dominated the news media, with the national television newscasts coming from New York and the dominant newspapers there, also. On top of that, the educational institutions in the east, having been formed earlier and supported robustly by the sons and daughters of the wealthy who graduated from them, were also dominant in their fields. The east had it all, money, education, culture and the long tentacles of its thought leadership stretched across the nation.
The eastern populations were largely drawn from European origins and they brought with them many aspects of the European mindset. They embraced the idea of an activist government. Crowded into cities, people saw the clear need for limitations on individual action and, if cooperation could not be gained, forceful efforts to limit the ability of individuals or groups to impose on others would be taken.
The American west is a far different place. At times, it can seem like a foreign land to someone from the east. Individualism is not just allowed, it is a cause. In two to three generations, people in the western states were totally Americans and they largely forgot about the national origins of their ancestors. Instead of crowding into ethnically defined neighborhoods, they settled anywhere they could with any resources they could muster. Created when activities like forestry, raising cattle, mining various ores and farming, or being small town merchants, were the only ways to make a living, bare or otherwise, the states and the people in them looked with suspicion on the rulers in the east. Resentment still builds even now over the vast tracks of land in western states that are owned by the federal government itself and local people are told they can’t do anything on those lands without getting official permission.
Those who have lived all of their lives in some of the sparsely populated western states, and whose families have been there for generations, don’t care what the problems are elsewhere. They are not generally interested in helping New York state solve its problems, but they will gladly accept federal money to deal with theirs, like the vast subsidies received every year, billions, to support agriculture. Then, they will talk at length, having taken the money, about the desire to be left alone.
The story of the western states is compounded by the deep resentment in the southern states, the aftermath of the Civil War 150 yrs. ago and the belief of many that African-Americans get a free ride while they have to work for modest wages. Racial politics is very much a part of the American process and getting it out of our system might take another 150 years.
The modern Republican party draws on all these tarnished feelings and strong resentments for much of its energy. Thrown into the mix are the evangelical Christians who believe the world is, literally, going to hell in a hand basket and who would like someone, anyone, to turn back the hands of time.
From this unfortunate brew, the American right has built up a mighty head of steam behind the idea, “We are right about everything and you, the left, are wrong”. It is this basis which forms the energy behind and the need for right wing media, especially taking into account the once undeniable eastern dominance of media and thought in America. The need to create their own biased news sources to counter what they consider to be bias from the left can be seen as a weakness, a failure to fully believe in their own ideas (why do they need constant reenforcement?) and, in the end, an underlying belief that their own followers are too easily led astray if they hear or read something different from the official line.
The center and left have their own biases, but they are not as deeply trapped by historic resentments. The left, after all, is about change, is about the idea that we have to face changing, new realities in order to progress, which is why many flee the now dirty word “liberal” in favor of progressive. The right is about not facing change, except, in many cases, in the way that it can be used to improve the power of the wealthy.
I would not be satisfied with a biased approach by either side of the political spectrum. Indeed, to my mind the old left/right divide is a fading relic of a time gone by. The arguments about the size of government are stale and worn thin. Besides, the right always refuses to define how much government is too much, unless it can pin “big government” as impinging on something the right favors.
We need bold media, news sources willing to fight hard and dig deep to find the truth and lay it bare. Right wing media will not do this. It is mainly “state media”, captured media, in training for the time when Republicans might have a lock on Congress, the White House and the national government for a decade or more. I am suspicious of media with a leftward perspective, too. I don’t want propaganda, I want information, insight and news that, against human biases, tries to play it straight.
Doug Terry, 3.24.14
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