We could get into the whole history of how we got here, but of course, most of it boils down to centralized control of most media outlets. That is, in the golden age of newspapers, every town of size had multiple papers with multiple outlooks. They were definitely biased, but there were so many that most of the time, no one or two biases took control. Back in the 70s and 80s, several things all started happening. The legal requirement that no one news source (owner) could hold a monopoly began to weaken. Cable television added countless channels, but with fewer corporate owners. Corporations began to own TV, radio, and newspapers, so all news started to look the same. They also started to cut funding for actual reporters and — especially on 24/7 cable TV — just started repeating the same thing over and over. We had less and shallower reporting on a never-ending loop. Then came the internet — and there has been so little regulation of it that bad folks have easily been able to take it over and give us 24/7 troll food. BUT, here’s one thing I think this cartoon misses — the person (ironically) on the right probably watches MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and PBS. And maybe the BBC for good measure. The person watching Fox probably only watches Fox.
We could get into the whole history of how we got here, but of course, most of it boils down to centralized control of most media outlets. That is, in the golden age of newspapers, every town of size had multiple papers with multiple outlooks. They were definitely biased, but there were so many that most of the time, no one or two biases took control. Back in the 70s and 80s, several things all started happening. The legal requirement that no one news source (owner) could hold a monopoly began to weaken. Cable television added countless channels, but with fewer corporate owners. Corporations began to own TV, radio, and newspapers, so all news started to look the same. They also started to cut funding for actual reporters and — especially on 24/7 cable TV — just started repeating the same thing over and over. We had less and shallower reporting on a never-ending loop. Then came the internet — and there has been so little regulation of it that bad folks have easily been able to take it over and give us 24/7 troll food. BUT, here’s one thing I think this cartoon misses — the person (ironically) on the right probably watches MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and PBS. And maybe the BBC for good measure. The person watching Fox probably only watches Fox.