They heard it on TV

In days long past the news media boasted it was ‘unbiased.’ It wasn’t. But to their credit when a politician they liked spun a lie most reporters called him out.

Back then, at the same time, over in Great Britain newspapers didn’t pretend they were unbiased. They took sides. And made no bones about it.

Not pretending to be unbiased struck me as more honest so when cable TV handed us Fox, CNN and MSNBC, all partisan, it looked like a step in the right direction. It didn’t turn out the way I expected.

When a Democrat spins a tale CNN and MSNBC don’t call him out – they cheer. And Fox cheers when a Republican spins a tale.

A liberal watching CNN hears glowing stories about lawsuits against Trump. A conservative watching Fox hears the same lawsuits are frauds. Hardly a soul hears both sides and we end up with two tribes swinging tomahawks both certain they’re right – because they heard it on TV.