Member-only story
MEDIA & BRIDGING DIVIDES
News. News?? And “News.”
Thoughts on a Balanced Media Diet.
A family member shared a video clip with me last week that made my blood boil and I immediately began writing this response. Then, as Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings unfolded this week and outlets that are said to lean left and others that lean right tried to correct the record, the topic of disinformation felt even more pressing.
If you also have someone in your family or a close friend who is consuming media that skews their views and leaves them mis-(or dis-)informed, this post is for you. I understand the frustration — and the pain — you may be experiencing. I share this perspective with hope to support productive conversations.
I don’t remember the name of the outlet that produced the video clip I saw and, even if I did, I wouldn’t direct your eyeballs there. What I do remember is the host was a middle-aged man with a British accent, let’s call him “M,” sharing an excerpt from a press conference given by a prominent American politician we’ll call “P.”
The excerpt of P’s remarks included no context; it was simply several moments of P at a podium navigating a question from the press. After playing the excerpt, M made several derogatory guesses about P’s mental state. M then brought on a reporter who is a young woman we’ll call “Y” for a split-screen session of merciless mocking, which M led with prompts like “Y, wouldn’t you agree that…?” and “Y, wouldn’t you say that…?” The age differences were such that P, a woman with decades of experience, could easily be Y’s grandmother.
My family member and I agreed on one thing: this 180-second video made our heads explode — but for very different reasons.
My family member watched the video and, in keeping with the overall narrative from M, saw “evidence” of “yet another inept politician running the country.”
From the same video, I saw someone with deep knowledge of Congressional procedure who, because she was speaking to a press corps also familiar with that procedure, used shorthand references and wonky terms that, taken out of context, could sound downright odd.
