Our country is divided. I think that everyone can agree with that statement. Ask why it is divided as it is and you will get a lot of different answers. We are divided about education. We are divided about race. We are divided about climate change. We are divided about just about everything. Sometimes I think that we need to take a step back and think about not what is dividing us but who is dividing us.

Growing up in the 50s and 60s there was no cable TV there was just the stations that you could watch with the antenna on the roof of your home. The main stations we could get ABC, NBC, and CBS and because I grew up close to Chicago we could get WGN. The news was just a half an hour of local news at 5:00pm and the network news at 5:30pm. We then had Local news again at 10:00pm. Most of the news we actually got was by reading the newspaper. Yes, most of us read our news from newspapers. What started me think of this was a friend posted on Facebook yearning for the days when Walter Cronkite sat there and read, or as some would say reported the news and you made up your own mind. There was a thing called the fairness doctrine meaning that you had to remain more neutral on all political subjects because you would have to give the other side equal time. Politics was very different back then because you had more moderates in both parties and bipartisanship was just not a word that could not be attained. Both parties had a common goal and that was the United States. Today, it seems at times, the country is taking a back seat in the war between the liberal and the conservative politicians and the news organizations.

What has changed? More than anything else Television and the News is now for profit on cable television. News is no longer a public service that the networks offered and a responsibility to the country. Now news is a 24 hr thing that needs to hold an audience’s attention so they could maintain sponsors. It started with CNN but soon we had FOX and MSNBC. Now we have news stations competing for viewers 24 hrs a day. News is now being sold to us like a box of cereal. Much of the objectivity is now gone as they compete for certain segments of society. Minds are now hard to change because we instead of learning the truth we search for news channel that already supports our opinions and in some cases your prejudices. The two biggest offenders are, in my opinion, are Fox News and CNN. CNN and Ted Turner started out with great intentions. Their coverage of the first Gulf War was just remarkable. We were watching history unfold in front of us live and it felt like we were almost participating in it. Then came Fox News and Rupert Murdock and news changed forever. News now became a competing business that sensationalized the news to attract audiences. I think in some ways that they are helping create the news that they are suppose to be reporting just to maintain their viewership.

Not only do we have 24 hrs of news we have News Talk Shows. When I was growing up we woke up to kids programs like Captain Kangaroo and Mister Green Jeans. Early morning children’s shows were replaced by morning news talk shows like Good Morning America. We had soaps as they called them like All My Children and Ryan’s Hope. Now most of the daytime soaps are gone and we have opinion programs like “The View”. We are being saturated by the news and opinions. We are constantly being told what to think. Our newspapers are slowly dying and with the death of our newspapers come the dummying down of America.

I never watch Fox News or CNN. I don’t even watch the nightly news anymore. I prefer to read my news. I don’t want to be told what to believe and I don’t like the hate talk that some of the News Talk Hosts bring to the table. We no longer read what journalist write, we watch what former Politicians say as contributors of the various news programs. Steve Bannon is not a journalist that researches anything. Sean Spencer is not a journalist in any way shape of form. Why do we give them the time of day? Well I don’t and neither should you. Read, look at opinions and evaluate them. God gave you a brain so use it. Teach your children to read the news. When I was in grade school in the 50s and 60s we had a publication that came to our classroom called the Weekly Reader that was a tool to get us interested in current events. It was a great way to learn about the printed news.

In today’s digital world the news is there for you to read 24-7 just remember that someone’s opinion on Twitter or Facebook is not the news, it is someone’s opinion. My blog is not the news and I am not a journalist. I write in hopes that you will do your own research and form your own opinion. I get people that will complain that I didn’t write about this group or that group and my answer is for them to write about it themselves. Research it, write it, and share it to the world so other people will start thinking. Let’s turn off those cable news stations and start reading and communicating with each other.