Obama Blames ‘Fractured Media’ for Lack of ‘Common Basis for What’s True’

Craig Bannister | February 12, 2016
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Pres. Obama suggested the U.S. needs a single media arbiter of “truth” during his address to the Illinois General Assembly this week.

While simultaneous bemoaning both the diverse opinions of the media and the similar views of people within parties, Obama blamed a “fractured media” for enabling Americans to “choose our own facts.”

Then, he suggested that America needs “a common basis for what’s true and what’s not”:

“What’s different today is the nature and the extent of the polarization.  How ideologically divided the parties are is brought about by some of the same long-term trends in our politics and our culture.  The parties themselves have become more homogenous than ever.  A great sorting has taken place that drove Southern conservatives out of the Democratic Party, Northern moderates out of the Republican Party, so you don’t have within each party as much diversity of views.

“And you’ve got a fractured media.  Some folks watch FOX News; some folks read the Huffington Post.  And very often, what’s profitable is the most sensational conflict and the most incendiary sound bites.  And we can choose our own facts.  We don’t have a common basis for what’s true and what’s not.  I mean, if I listened to some of these conservative pundits, I wouldn’t vote for me either.  I sound like a scary guy.”

Unfortunately, Pres. Obama did not say who in the media should be entrusted to provide Americans with this “common basis for what’s true” and to "choose" the facts for them.

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