There's a fascinating new episode of Chris Hayes' podcast "Why Is This Happening?" where he interviews fellow MSNBC host Joy Reid. She has an almost unbelievable background. I had no idea.
During the course of their discussion, they wonder what caused all the current division in the country. Joy postulates it was two things, first the election in 2008 of the nation's first African American president. On top of that, she says, that same year analysis came out that within a few years the country would be "majority minority," meaning white folks would be outvoted. This terrified the same forces who in 1877 overthrew Reconstruction and re-established white hegemony in he South, and they mobilized to decertify non-white voters, gerrymander districts to nullify the non-white vote, and they tried to cast doubt on any election won by a non-white candidate.
All that's a factor I think, but I pin the blame squarely on one single proximate cause: Fox Entertainment.
Previous to the emergence of FNC the news Americans consumed was vetted and fact-checked. There have always been "alternative facts" purveyors, but until FNC they were disconnected and out of he mainstream. Fox mainstreamed them.
There was a study a couple years ago, it determined that
Fox viewers had LESS information about current events than people who consumed no news at all.Fox has bifurcated the electorate into two halves, the people who follow the news, and the people who watch Fox. Ignorance and misinformation and disinformation are now a "valid worldview" and the result is that tinpot dictator wanna-bes like Trump are actual contenders.
The solution, to my mind, is not in fighting right-wing extremism or right-wing candidates. That only strengthens their appeal.
No, the only solution out of the mess we're in is to place some guidelines on Fox. Some fact-checking. Some accountability for what they broadcast. Make it possible for normal citizens to sue for factual errors, to require Fox to provide airtime to counter views.
Without breaking the stronghold of "fake news" over half the country, we'll never see the end of anti-democratic forces. "An informed populace is essential to the survival of democracy," as somebody once said.
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