Recent letter to the Editor

OMG – you’ve got to be kidding
I read with horror Michael Reagan’s column as covered in the June 16th edition of the HDT. His claim that Fox News is number one is beyond ludicrous. Fox, MSNBC & CNN are more “Agenda” support systems for the politically inclined. Of these three Fox is arguably the worst. At least CNN & MSNBC frequently invite persons with an opposing viewpoints to debate the issues. Fox seldom does. Regardless, none of these stations are worth watching. While they do report events 90% of their airtime is spent in a combination of mindless speculation and agenda “spinning”. If you want unbiased news reporting you will need to view elsewhere.
It is obvious that both CNN & MSNBC salivate at the prospect of a Trump impeachment. It is equally obvious that Fox is the Trump “mothership”. My suspicion is that the loyal viewers of these programs (notice that I do not refer to them as news programs) do so to reinforce their established political leanings.
In the process these programs are doing extreme damage to the Republic and not because of the subject matter. What they are facilitating is the trend to increased polarization. If you are standing politically to the right then everyone to the left of center is an idiot and worse they are intent on destroying the American way of life. If you are standing to the left then everyone on the right is and idiot and worse the enemy of the disadvantaged.
The reality is that there are more folks not that far away from the “political center” on both sides. What our elected leaders and these three programs encourage is polarization and the more the better. We then focus on despising the other side rather than focusing on issues which both sides can support. Examples of these are: 1. The National Debt 2. The rising cost of and declining level of quality health care & 3. The out of control rising cost of advanced education.
Polarization is an effective political control mechanism that works to the advantage of both major parties. The are the shepherds and view us as malleable sheep. Baaaah Baaaah
Dave Fitton – Harrison