I think I missed my calling. I should have been a political pundit.
As I sit here listening to what passes for news on TV, I realize that I am as qualified as anyone to have an opinion on current events.
First, I know very little about almost everything, and that seems like a requirement. Second, I can spout off stupid, hurtful rhetoric. And, perhaps most importantly, I can do it with a straight face and an air of authority.
The hardest part, I think, is building mountains out of molehills. That takes creativity. I’m a pretty good embellisher and I’m not bothered by lapses in memory — those can be filled in with whatever pops into my head.
Mark Twain once said, “I don’t exaggerate; I just remember big.” I think that’s what he said. I wasn’t there at the time. But I’ve always thought that fiction ought to be plausible — a handicap that doesn’t burden the truth. But some of the fiction I hear on the news is so implausible that it almost sounds like it could be true.
Today, I heard a report on fighting among teens in America and the news person, if you can call her that, compared an incident to ISIS, the extremist terrorist organization. I’m still scratching my head on that one.
It seems like the news people on TV have two objectives: They need to find blame for the problem being discussed and they want to push a political agenda. That creates a formula for attaching all blame to their political foes.
That also means that the search for blame begins and ends on one side of the fence or the other.
It doesn’t matter what the breaking news is, these people are experts on everything. I think they must have a wheel behind them that they spin each time a new topic comes up. Each space on the wheel has a different talking point but the hub is always the object of their disdain.
Whether they hate the president or love the president, all roads lead to the same path. It’s amazing.
I realize now that I could never do that job because I know how little I know. While these guys know just as little, I’m not sure they realize it. Their arguments are tailored to fit their agenda, not the facts at hand.
It’s not difficult to figure out that they are playing to an audience that already has the same predetermined political persuasion. We call that preaching to the choir.
There are no more Walter Cronkites. Cronkite didn’t speak to Democrats or Republicans. He spoke to Americans. Those were the days when facts mattered.
The only thing we can do is listen to the talking heads on both sides and realize that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The problem is that most of us choose to listen to only the side that we already agree with. That makes us part of the problem.
© 2015 by David Porter, who can be reached at presseditor1@gmail.com.