Robert F. Kennedy Jr: Fox News Has Divided Country In A Way Not Seen Since Civil War

[Flatulo]

77. Can you expand on this?

"For a country that claims to defend the free exchange of ideas we really tolerate only a very narrow range of them."

Not all ideas get the same volume level or exposure because not all ideas are treated as equally sound, true or valid by a majority. For example, you cited DU as scrubbing certain speech, and in particular, 9/11 conspiracy theores come to mind.

Putting aside for a moment the fact that DU is privately owned and operated, and have no obligation to tolerate conspiracy theories any more than they would be obligated to tolerate RW talking points, do you think it is somehow unfair that such speech is relegated to a sub-forum, or that they are not given headline status on all the evening news stations?

Likewise, since the major media in this country are corporate owned, do they not have the right to determine what material they broadcast that they see as best serving their market?

There is a political spectrum in this country (well, everywhere) that I believe resembles a normal distribution (the classic bell-shaped curve). Fox News obviously caters to the right side of this curve, and MSNBC serves the left side, with CNN and the over-the-air networks more-or-less serve the vast center. The people on the right side think that the media is very strongly left-biased, and the people on the left think that the media is strongly right-biased. This tells me that on balance, the entire spectrum is being served. People can choose for themselves what to watch, and by extension, what to believe.

I think the reason why people on the left go absolutely apoplectic over Fox is that they don't accept that 90% of their programming is opinion (propaganda). Their straight news reporting (man bites dog) is fine with me. But don't people see that MSNBC does the same thing? Keith Olberman always had only liberals on his program. Ed Shulz and Rachel are obviously extremely liberal. People on the right see this as blatant liberal propaganda.

I would propose the following: let each network retain full control over their content, and let people decide what to believe. However, anything other than straight, objectively verifiable news stories be CLEARLY IDENTIFIED as OPINION pieces.

I don't support a return of the Fairness Doctrine because it would force privately held outlets to tailor their programming per the dictates of whatever government is currently in power. Many people here feel that it would restore balance, but I believe we already have balance, and most of the griping is for no other reason than that Fox is highly successful at marketing their message to a wide audience. I think the real goal is to advance the liberal agenda at any cost.

I personally don't feel that Fox is tearing the country apart. I believe that the divisions we see are real, genuine differences in perceptions of what the role of government should be, what kind of society we want to be, whether or not we become more like the European statist model (not a bad thing - the Scandanavians are the happiest and healthiest people in the world) or whether we retain our Big Swingin' Dick model.

But I don't think having the government steer the discussion is the way to go.

Then again, I could just be completely full of shit.