Since 1990, I’ve been a loyal CNN Cable News fan. I felt they represented the right tone in their delivery of news happenings and commentary.
Two things changed that:
One, I became bored stiff watching CNN about a year ago.
And two, my wife started watching FOX News.
To cure the boredom I started rifling through different news channels. I landed on one that was more liberal and hard hitting than CNN. That was MSNBC. It was refreshing to hear an edgier approach to the news.
And to appease my wife, I started watching FOX News and Commentary with her.
I came to some conclusions:
I actually started picking segments from all three that I liked. On Fox I like Bill Hemmer, Shepherd Smith and Chris Wallace. On MSNBC, I like Ari Melber, Ali Velshi, and Rachel Maddow. On CNN I like Jake Tapper, Fareed Zakaria, and Chris Cuomo.
When I want to get my juices flowing, I watch FOX’s Tucker Carlson and Shawn Hannity. These are guys I viscerally oppose philosophically and politically. But, the more I watch them, the less I dislike them. I just disagree with their opinions.
With all this, I had forgotten one of the most important, if not the most important, truths I have believed for decades. It is, Ideas beget alternative ideas, and through the friction caused by these opposing ideas, better ideas emerge, which in turn give birth to further alternative ideas, etc.
An idea without an alternative idea does not provide the necessary intellectual friction to cause further ideas to be born. If this process failed to exist, human progress would fail to exist, and human life would begin to fade away.
For me CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS exist to counter each others’ ideas with opposing ideas. As long as this exists, we stand the best chance of moving forward.