I blame Fox

 At the risk of seeming political, I blame Fox. Allow me to explain.

I'm old enough to remember the days before Fox. In those days, we all had the same three news channels so we all saw the same reports, and we could argue from the same starting points. More importantly, those channels saw news as a service, as did the local channels or affiliates, rather than as an income generator and I am reasonably certain that they were required to provide news as a quid pro quo for being permitted their commercial side. Programing brought audiences which in turn brought advertisers and revenue. News did not have to appeal to a demographic or particular perspective or niche. We all knew that networks reflected the views of the owners which were generally center-right and pro-establishment, and debated what they brought us accordingly.

When Fox first emerged, their motive was purely and simply for the bucks. They consciously went for big audience numbers to bring in advertisers and were not so concerned with reporting or accuracy or veracity. Certainly some of their earlier staff were cut from a journalist's cloth, but many were not. Fox invaded our airwaves under the banner of "fair and balanced" and was neither. Fox also began the blurring of reporting with commentary. with Bill O'Reilly in particular presenting his commentary as objective. Audiences who liked those perspectives, or agreed with them or saw them as reinforcing their on views reliably turned in and niche audiences emerged. 

Niche audiences led to niche programing which led to fragmenting which led to silos. Colleagues, neighbors and family begin confidently declaring, "The moon is made of blue cheese", cementing their case with, "I heard it on Fox." False claims would be made about things I personally knew well, events on my own street or in my own city, which could not be disputed because the assertion had come from Fox.

Prior to Fox, we lived in a world of nuance and of multiple perspectives, and of grey. With Fox, everything became two-sided. A typical segue was, "Now we'll hear from the other side" or "on both sides of the argument". I think we are unique in the world in seeing issues as having two sides. Everywhere else, people see things as complex with multiple causes, multiple possibilities, multiple outcomes.

This led, perhaps inevitably, to hating the other, best exemplified by Newt Gingrich and George W Bush who can be summed up as "you're with us or against us" leading inevitably to "we're right" and "we deserve anything and everything we want". Fox saw this in their audience, and followed this development feeding them more and more of what they wanted to hear, and of the vindication they sought. This led inexorably to the point where anyone who doesn't embrace whole-throatedly the latest gun, voting and speech proclamation is denounced as an enemy who deserves at a minimum violence.

However two things are happening. The first is the hot sauce effect, If you continually eat hot sauce, you become inured and so seek every hotter sauces. Fox's extreme and center-hating audience began seeking wilder content and so leaving Fox for new, sometimes single issue but decidedly single perspective, podcasts and channels. Fox saw this, in their wallets, and began also to leave any semblance of reporting and objectivity. Until Dominion Voting Machines.

Secondly and perhaps as a result, Fox has begun to include a second or even a third viewpoint in much of their programing leading to some discussion and to some debate.

But has the damage been so great that it is irreparable? I have long held that the advent of multiple-choice and machine-scorable standardized testing led to the simplification of learning, to a focus on "stuff" and to a or b / black and white thinking, Can we return to a society which sees things as being complex and as requiring time to discuss and to resolve, and even compromise? Or where people can have different views and we still live next to them, work with them or even like them?

Schools have a role to play here of course. Schools can teach complexity, or analysis, or awareness of difference or acceptance of ambiguity or ... Oh dear. Mmm ...

**Please leave comments and questions below.**