No argument here. There has been and always will be violence in the media. Most of that is for entertainment value. Why though in the "news" media has there become so much hatred and distrust directed towards the other side? Entertainment value?
YES.
The media has become an entertainment vehicle. Time was that the media's primary interest was breaking the story before the competition did, or getting an exclusive.
These days it's become a ratings engine. Whoever can break the most sensationalistic story... it's no longer about telling the hard truth, it's about spoon feeding people whatever gets the viewers. Look at many of the major media outlets... CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc... routinely stories about Lindsay Lohan or what this "Snookie" girl is up to make front page news.
Look at our problems. Record debt. A nation divided. Unemployment. Home values. Border violence. Wars. All these things... and we want to hear about Lindsay freakin' Lohan. Absolutely, astoundingly pathetic. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us.
Start really paying attention to the "spin" and you can realize just how pathetic it is... sensationalism at it's worst. "Democrats SLAM education bill." "Senator BLASTS remarks made about Don't Ask, Don't Tell." SLAM? BLAST? Gotta love the use of the most dramatic, sensationalistic words possible.
Years ago, viewers wouldn't have stood for this sort of "news." Now, they eat it up.
In the end, it's not the media's fault. It's ours. Too many of us are more concerned about what is on Entertainment Tonight or who is winning on Dancing with the Stars than what is going on in the world. We eat up this "entertainews" and do not demand better of the media. It's a free market system... the media can't really be blamed for giving people what they want.
We as a populace need to get educated, get involved, and demand that the media provide us with factual, educational information. AND, parroting the rhetoric, spreading the negativity and disseminating the sensationalistic rhetoric does nothing to further those ends. The media is only part of the problem. We as a populace need to rise above it.