Wear Well

There is an old saying, you are what you eat, and of course there is a lot of truth in this, but it is not the whole truth. In Genesis’s Selling England by the Pound (Dancing with the Moonlight Knight), there is a line:
Old man says, “you are what you wear, wear well.“
Of course there is an element of truth to this as well. But perhaps more so, we are what we read, see and hear, at least what we take on board of what we read, see and hear.

Discussing politics with Trump supporters, one comes across this information divide, for example some well educated and intelligent people see Hillary Clinton as a murderess because of the Benghazi affair. So where are these people getting their news and analysis from? And why the vehemence?

To the left is a Pew Research graphic from 2014 depicting which media outlets are trusted depending on the people’s political persuasion.

I am a little surprised that the list for trust levels includes things like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. While I watched and thought them funny, the “news” they purveyed I thought was always worth fact checking.

Regarding BuzzFeed, I was not overly familiar with the news outlet, but I had heard on the internet banter, they are occasionally first and accurate on some newsworthy items. Just going to their website, as I write, I had trouble finding news that was worth getting right.

But the thing to take away from the graphic is how few news outlets “consistent conservatives” have, that overall they think are trustworthy; these include: The Wall Street Journal (good), The Blaze, Fox News, Drudge Report, Breitbart and God forbid Glenn Beck’s Program, Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s Shows. There is a newer version of the graphic from Pew Research gives a more pessimistic view: only Fox News, Breitbart, Hannity and Limbaugh remain on the list. Surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal has fallen off the list. Though those that are moderate conservatives are a little more wary of those sites, with the exception of Fox News.

Of the thirty news outlets liberals seem to be more trusting of their news sources. Whereas, conservatively minded people seem to be more skeptical of their news feeds.

While I would agree it is wise to take a pinch of salt with even the most trusted of our news feeds, I would also be skeptical of my own evaluation if I found myself not trusting two-thirds of major news outlets.

The graphic below is based on Ad Fontes’ data (Latin for To Source). I have eliminated some of the more minor news outlets and moved some outlets ever-so-slightly to make the graphic a little bit more readable. Ad Fontes, evaluated whether the reporting was selective, opinion, analytical or fact based. I can’t really argue for the accuracy of the evaluation other than, it seems to generally fit with my perceptions. There are a few that I would disagree with … Huffington Post is one and the rag Daily Mail is another, analysis would be kind for that outlet. The vast majority I don’t know. Just taking the analysis at face value for the moment.

The first thing that stuck out to me was the majority of the news outlets tended to be left leaning. In someways this is not surprising in that the journalism is, at least on paper, about a greater good. So, it is not surprising that journalism as a profession might lean to the left.

The other thing that surprised me was the relative paucity of news outlets on the right that dealt in “complex analysis”. There is a noticeable gap, which could be a result of:

• Ad Fontes themselves are biased
• A problem with the methodology.
• A problem with the categories.
• Conservative views don’t stand complex analysis.

Is it the missing section of the press, that leads to the polarization of the USA? Of course conservatives will see themselves closer to the middle. I see myself in the middle too. Though if the questionnaire at Political Compass is right, I am strongly socialistic or at least a left leaning libertarian. In the American context the majority of people seem small “l” liberally inclined. So the Trump supporters who are vocal point the press being to the left, which is likely true in that the people as a whole are to the left of the Trump supporters.

Which of the following is likely true?

• Does our political persuasion reflect the news feeds we choose?
• Or does the news feed affect our political persuasion?
• Is there an outside cause affecting both our news feed and political persuasions
• Is there a mishmash of the above?
• And finally, for those that think correlation does not imply causation, the whole thing is some statistical fluke?

I can’t help thinking it is a mishmash, we are affected by our environment and of course we are an integral part of our environment.

Generally, I avoid, Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity. They are not good for my blood pressure. Never had a requirement to go to Breitbart. Fox News, I get to watch clips of their worst excesses posted by left leaning outlets; in my opinion, though I can’t say it is their worst definitively. I get most of my news from BBC, decreasingly from the CNN – too much opinion and not enough news. Interestingly the international CNN is not bad, in that, it does have news about the rest of the world on a routine basis. Occasionally from the CBC.

Of course I see myself in the middle. Some aspects of the left I find abhorrent. For example:

• Cancelling people (ie de-platforming those of opposite views). This belongs in the fascist armory as far as I am concerned. There is a difference between not lending my soap box to an objectionable speaker on Hyde Park Corner and removing a soap box from out under his feet.
• Pronouns for all. If someone wants a gender specific pronoun for themselves that is fine. But vilifying those that won’t use them is ridiculous. I find it daft, that we have categories like Best Female Actor, what is wrong with Best Actress? And those might object to my point of view, please explain to me how the male suffix –or makes sense?

OK, I am sliding off topic here, but my point is not everyone is going to support every aspect of a broad platform. Left and right are not simple concepts, there is patchwork quilt of issues for people to choose from that make up the political landscape. They pick what are the important issues to them and they pick a party that they think best suits them. The press on the far left and the far right will likely obfuscate the issues and will be there more for persuasion rather than information.

When it comes to the news, old man says, you are what you read, read well.