Letter: You can't believe the media anymore

As someone deeply concerned about the blind partisan divisiveness that currently afflicts the American body politic, I dismiss any argument that plays to that divisiveness as a prima fascia case of being without merit.

Such arguments use personal circumstance to suppress or subvert any honest, pragmatic debate on issues that will determine the fate of our country. Race is pitted against race, economic class is pitted against economic class, old are pitted against young, and religion is pitted against religion in a self-serving and selfish quest for political advantage, without regard for the ultimate consequence of the actions that we take.

It is now time that we, as the single greatest nation in the history of the world, realize that our actions have tremendous consequence, and with that comes a responsibility to reach informed conclusions based upon our individual assessment of the best arguments in support of them.

Unfortunately, we can no longer depend upon the vaunted “Fourth Estate” (i.e., the news media) as a reliable source to deliver the facts necessary to make informed conclusions. Instead of reporting the best arguments made by both sides of any issue, today’s news media members deliver their interpretation of those arguments or, worse yet, deliver only one side of the argument.

God save me from the sanctimonious journalist who presumes to be in a position to do my thinking for me, and deliver me an honest reporter, someone who seeks to deliver the brightest and best arguments for both sides of any issue and then allow me to reach my own conclusions. Until then, I must rely upon my own devices to prove or disprove the “news” delivered by today’s journalists.

If your only argument in support of a position is that it is what you believe to be right, regardless of consequence, then the rest of us would do well to dismiss it, for it is both naïve and self-destructive. It is exactly the kind of non-critical thinking that has placed us in our current economic situation. Both political parties share the blame for that.

STEVE THORNTON

Woodbridge

You can’t believe the media anymore

As someone deeply concerned about the blind partisan divisiveness that currently afflicts the American body politic, I dismiss any argument that plays to that divisiveness as a prima fascia case of being without merit.

Such arguments use personal circumstance to suppress or subvert any honest, pragmatic debate on issues that will determine the fate of our country. Race is pitted against race, economic class is pitted against economic class, old are pitted against young, and religion is pitted against religion in a self-serving and selfish quest for political advantage, without regard for the ultimate consequence of the actions that we take.

It is now time that we, as the single greatest nation in the history of the world, realize that our actions have tremendous consequence, and with that comes a responsibility to reach informed conclusions based upon our individual assessment of the best arguments in support of them.

Unfortunately, we can no longer depend upon the vaunted “Fourth Estate” (i.e., the news media) as a reliable source to deliver the facts necessary to make informed conclusions. Instead of reporting the best arguments made by both sides of any issue, today’s news media members deliver their interpretation of those arguments or, worse yet, deliver only one side of the argument.

God save me from the sanctimonious journalist who presumes to be in a position to do my thinking for me, and deliver me an honest reporter, someone who seeks to deliver the brightest and best arguments for both sides of any issue and then allow me to reach my own conclusions. Until then, I must rely upon my own devices to prove or disprove the “news” delivered by today’s journalists.

If your only argument in support of a position is that it is what you believe to be right, regardless of consequence, then the rest of us would do well to dismiss it, for it is both naïve and self-destructive. It is exactly the kind of non-critical thinking that has placed us in our current economic situation. Both political parties share the blame for that.