Funny GIFs aside, I'm not being hyperbolic here. Did President Trump or Mr. Spicer do damage to the republic last Friday? Probably not. But they're testing one of the essential American tenents, that of a free and unhindered press. Take a swing at the support structures and cables of a bridge and you probably won't have a problem. Do it hard enough, long enough, and you get the Liberty Bridge. #pittsburghjokes
The rebuttal to this line of thinking has been (at least on my Facebook wall) that the media is a mess. That's not a completely invalid concern. At the moment, as Americans, we can choose the media that best suits our view of the world. If I am liberal, I have MSNBC. If I am a conservative, I have FOX. And if I pigeon hole myself enough into either of those, I will never ever be challenged. I will never ever have to question my views. I will never have to hear the other side. Pretty soon, however the facts (or as is increasingly true today, alternative facts) are spun to fit my world view. I'm fed a narrative that allows me to gather with my own kind, and vilify the other.
(Incidentally, Rob Bell did a podcast about this on Monday that is 100% worth listening to. It somehow makes sense of what's happening in media, and also makes sense of the Dallas Cowboys. Weird, right? So take a moment when we're done here and check it out.)
So what do we do with all this? I would encourage us to challenge ourselves by listening to news from all angles each and every day. I would encourage us to spend time listening to how the other side might frame an argument. I would hear their talking points, and actually label as truth the things that are true (you are aware that most major news networks, regardless of their leanings, do stumble on to truth every once in a while, right?) I would also encourage us to vote with our dollars. Buy a subscription to the local paper in your town. News isn't free, or at least it shouldn't be. It's worth the 10 bucks a month or whatever. You pay ten times that for your cable anyway. Support the journalists who are doing their level best to give us to the truth, who will expose people who are wrong, even when it's us. It's worth it.
And while we're at it, try to allow every view point to be present at the press briefings if we can?
(P.S. I wrote this early in the week, and then the whole Russia thing exploded again. I'm sure you've noticed, I am an extremely lazy blogger, so I didn't want to re-write what I already had. Rest assured, we'll turn our attention to that particular story soon enough. Till then, have a great weekend everyone!)