This past week my son and I were discussing the tragedy that is life in this world, and he let me know that he had recently been informed that America is in dire straits and that he needs to keep up with Fox News to understand just how bad things are.
Whenever someone says we need to keep up with Fox News or some other "conservative" media outlet I immediately think of this post from Joe Carter. During his brief time on the Huckabee campaign Joe interacted at length with the mainstream media and says that he generally got a fair shake from the MSM, save the "conservative media."
My gripe isn't so much with Fox as it is with the idea that the news media provides an accurate picture of the world as it is, and this is why I encouraged my son to take what he hears on the news with a grain of salt, or a yawn.
Back in the day, I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh a good deal, and I can remember him describing the purpose of his program and the purpose of callers. The overall purpose of the program was to gain listeners, and thus to gain sponsors, and to make money for the sponsors and the show. The purpose of callers was to make the host look good.
In saying that, I don't mean to imply that Rush doesn't believe what he says on the radio. I believe he is singularly committed to and articulate about his conservative ideology. But the bottom line is ratings, and to insure good ratings, he must first be a good entertainer. This does not mean that an entertainer cannot inform, it just means that you have to be aware of where the priorities lie.
And it's not just Rush, it seems to me that the purpose of any news outlet is to garner ratings, and thus the package often must trump the product. And when it comes to ratings, there is one thing that drives ratings - sensationalism.
Somewhere along the lines I stopped listening to talk radio, but Rush's words were driven home more as I read James Davison Hunter's classic book "Culture Wars." Hunter suggested that in any given culture debate there were around 20% on the extremes of any given issue and 60% in the middle. The 20% on each side were "true believers" who vilified the other side and saw them as a threat to our societal well-being. The 60% in the middle may have leaned one way or the other, but most of them were the kinds of people you could have a discussion with and who may be open to reason from either side. And though one side may not convince the other side, they could co-exist.
But the vast majority represented by those 60% are too boring to ever make it on TV. It's sensationalists and extremists who make it on TV, so at best, TV can give you accurate views of the minority of extremists on either side of the issue. Thus, TV fosters polarization.
The same thing goes with more mundane things in life. Americans today are safer, more prosperous, and healthier than at any time in history. Yet the news media continues to stoke and promote our fears because fear and sensationalism garners viewers. Let me encourage you to google "culture of fear" and just follow a few of the links to get a picture of how misplaced our fears can be. Also, check out the Riskometer to see what your chances are of dying by some of the most common "fearful things."
My point to my son is not that we ought not to use certain news outlets because of their ideological biases (I'm sure Fox's ideological biases are closer to mine than CNN's, but I watch neither), but because they skew reality in favor of the sensational and alarming. If you imbibe too much of that stuff you'll be terminally jumpy and fearful, and that's just no fun.
I think those who share my conservative Christian worldview, should be the least alarmed and the least sucked in to this stuff of anyone, yet we are often the ones who are the most sucked in. But, Jesus Himself said that the era that is bracketed by His first and second comings would be an era when wheat and tares grow up together. Believers and unbelievers will increase in number. Good and evil will increase. Disaster and restoration will grow together.
In his best selling book "The Reason for God," Tim Keler points out that both the religious and secular are increasingly alarmed at the growth of the other side. Keller points out that both have evidence on their side - secularism is increasing and so is belief. This is just one example of the working out of the parable of the wheats and tares in our day. But it is also illustrative of a couple of basic theological truths - fall and redemption. We live in a fallen world, thus the world will always have evil and disaster, both natural and man-made. But we live in a world where a redeemer has come, thus the world will always contain remarkable healing and beauty.
This means we can and should take appropriate action when disaster and evil show up. But we should never be alarmed or surprised them and we especially ought not to live in fear. And most importantly, we must not let the presense of disaster and evil obscure the beauty and grandeur that is life on this earth.
Unfortunately the news media is well equipped to bring you disaster and evil on a daily basis, and in regards to beauty and goodness, not so much.
I'm not arguing that you shouldn't avail yourself of popular media outlets, just remember they are after the ratings and while they may be passing along accurate information, they have to cast it in a way that draws viewers in, and what better ways to draw viewers in than by playing on fears and using sensationalism.
Oh, one last word that is probably worth another post. The Freakonomics guys deal with the tyranny of the expert in their book and how fear is their main tool. The antidote - the internet. But read widely and read off the beaten path.
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