By George Fallar 
Internet bandwidth is expanding exponentially and content is following.
A reasonable interpretation of Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 satirical poem and spoken word song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is a warning to Americans their country is shifting in an unhealthy direction and we’ve come to expect delivery of clear warnings via easily digested television.
Scott-Heron suggests it’s time to get up off the couch and more fully participate in the change process.
Technology produced in the fifty plus years since brings effectively constant unlimited access to much of the information the world has to offer, delivered whenever we choose to ask for it.
Based upon the spread and persistence of thoroughly debunked falsehoods, our will to venture outside the silos of information we accept as truth is weakening.
That weakness is not despite the availability of more information, it’s because of it.
Americans are vulnerable to the same temptations as people everywhere. Our unique set of socioeconomic advantages present a target rich environment for specific sets of disinformation aimed for maximum effectiveness worldwide.
As a nation, Americans are neither inherently weak of will nor lazy. There is evidence we’re headed down that path at least as far as how we decide to allow ourselves to be governed by misinformation.
There’s no time in history when a significant percentage of available information has not been false. Now, however, there’s no excuse but laziness for accepting lies when the truth is 10 seconds away on displays of varying sizes and format.
It’s only necessary to have the will to type or even speak a few words to our phones or televisions. Results of varying accuracy will be fed to us in seconds.
Those results must then be filtered through the lenses of fact versus fiction, the bias of the source, and our own bias to discount information we don’t like.
If that bare minimum is done, you’ll be far ahead of the typical consumer.
Facts Are Not Opinions
All of us consuming media are getting plenty of help moving in directions away from the middle ground where we could speak with each other civilly with a willingness to support our opinions citing evidence we are confident is the truth.
That less than gentle shove comes from commercial enterprises dependent on many sets of consuming eyeballs for success. There’s money in offering easy and popular access to shared information.
Companies offering this access can choose to vet the content flowing through their system, but we shouldn’t realistically expect them to put forth much effort to do so as it would likely affect their profit margin.
We are each personally responsible for healthy skepticism and evaluating statements we consume for truth before we choose to repeat them as fact.
While facts aren’t opinions, truth may evolve. Nuance is part of truth, and truths may even be disproven as our knowledge expands. That doesn’t make our truth in this moment misinformation or an opinion to be dismissed. Disproven facts only become lies once that proof becomes available and we choose to hold them as truth.
Fox News versus CNN and MSNBC
The elephant in the room thus far in this discussion is the crux of the problem. The stretch of middle ground where we can talk is purposefully narrowed by the people benefitting from a binary division of American media consumers. Those people, be they shareholders or media corporation executives and employees, stand to gain by driving cultural wedges between already divided groups.
It’s not difficult, now, having been so starkly defined for at least twenty years if not longer.
Fox News is the reigning leader in the basic cable network game racking up big wins for years with the only temporary interloper being the MSNBC Rachel Maddow show now on one night (Monday) a week.
Ratings Drive Content
Perhaps it’s not fair to directly compare networks head-to-head because the “conservative” viewership will almost exclusively avoid CNN and MSNBC. Of course the converse is true for “liberal” viewers who will avoid Fox News. The obvious difference is the “liberal” networks split their audience between them while Fox does not have serious competition in their space.
Combining the viewership numbers for CNN and MSNBC renders a nearly equal count of eyeballs watching the networks with Fox nearly always still coming out ahead.
Still, Fox News is the highest rated cable network of any kind. What would be their incentive for changing ANYTHING about their content and presentation?
Research for this piece turned up a couple of related unexpected Fox News rating tidbits. In November, 2023, the number one show for the coveted demographic of viewers aged 24-54 with 277,000 average viewers was Gutfeld! Also unexpected is that particular show is rated as a news show. It’s a news show like “The Colbert Show” is a news show. Also interesting is that Gutfeld, despite support for all things Trump, reportedly didn’t bother to vote in 2016, admitting he “may” have missed the deadline for MAILING IN(!) in his ballot.
Is Cable News Actually News?
October, 2023 presented a solid example of which cable news network will present an accurate representation of world events with yet another mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine and Hamas attacking Israel and Israel responding.
CNN sees more audience percent growth from major breaking news events more than its Fox News and MSNBC counterparts, and this was certainly the case in October 2023, which featured continuing, in-depth live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the Lewiston, Maine mass shooting.
Here Are Cable News Network Ratings for October 2023 – AdWeek
Why would CNN attract more viewers than the other two networks when major breaking news is happening? That’s outside the scope of this discussion, but the viewership numbers aren’t easily fudged poll numbers.
The Drumbeat of Purposeful Inaccuracies
Regardless of your political leanings, if you’ve read this far you’ve certainly been involved in speaking with another person in what cannot be described as a discussion or an argument. One imperative statement “The 2020 election was free and fair.” leads to another “The 2020 election was rigged.” This continues until something like the following comes out.
“Oh yeah? Where do YOU get YOUR information from?”
It is crucial to develop the ability to discern between reliable, fact-checked information and misinformation.
When it comes to consuming information, it’s essential to exercise critical thinking and employ reliable sources. Even well-sourced information can be subject to bias or inaccuracies from the sources or the reporting. The only way to ensure we really have an accurate grasp of the truth is to diversify sources and cross-reference information.
Fact-checking websites can be helpful resources, but they’re also fallible.
Social media channels are the real hotbeds of propaganda. Being cautious of deliberately crafted lies or misinformation isn’t difficult. The velocity of the spread of a particular bit of information that seems just a little too perfect for either a conservative or liberal “AHA moment” is one of the better clues it’s stretched truth or simply a lie.
We should accept the responsibility of not repeating anything we don’t reasonably believe is a fact. Let the professional trolls do that work.
So Where’s The Revolution?
The revolution we need is yet to begin. There’s little discernable pushback on misinformation. In fact, the reorganization of Twitter into X has contributed mightily to the flow of lies. That’s a mistake, but it was purposeful.
It may be hyperbolic to say a revolution that could upset the fabric of the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands isn’t being planned.
There are clear statements from people currently in power that the United States should be a Christian theocracy. There are overt statements from at least two Republican presidential candidates that authoritarian moves to consolidate power under direct control of the president are planned.
There was already a violent attack on the Capitol that, if successful, would have restored the candidate who lost the election back into power.
There are other rumblings of similar changes that include dismantling of law enforcement and invoking the Insurrection Act having the most powerful military on the planet brought to bear against Americans in their own country.
It’s past time we a push back every time a clear lie is repeated.
If we don’t start THAT revolution, we’re susceptible to a different one.
Supporting information links
- Here Are Top-Rated Cable News Shows of November 2023 – AdWeek
- Here Are Cable News Network Ratings for October 2023 – AdWeek
- argument definition – Merriam-Webster
- discussion definition – Merriam-Webster