There’s a risk in getting news and information from just the big news networks, such as CNN and Fox News. You could enter one or the other of the echo chambers and have the door lock behind you, thus consigning you to a lifetime of getting only one perspective on the world.
History is the best source of news, because history does indeed repeat itself. It is a good predictor of how a current event or trend will turn out.
My wife and I take the risk of entering the echo chambers when a major story hits. That was the case with attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Upon hearing the news, we turned on two TVs, one tuned to CNN and the other to Fox. Later, we watched coverage by the BBC.
During the chaos immediately after the assassination attempt, CNN and Fox did a fairly good job of filling the air time. But, amazingly, in the first two hours of coverage, neither showed a Google Satellite View of where the campaign rally was held and the surrounding neighborhood. Viewers were left without a perspective on where a shooter could’ve fired from. Were there nearby woods? Homes? Businesses? Warehouses?
Naturally, Fox tended to get comments from Republican politicians and conservative commentators. A couple of them pinned the blame for the assassination attempt on Democrats, for incessantly characterizing Trump as a Nazi and a threat to democracy.
I turned to my wife and said, “They’re going to look like fools if the shooter turns out to be a Republican.”
Predictably, CNN tended to get comments from Democrats, who, conveniently forgetting their past anti-Trump vitriol, said that divisiveness and dangerous rhetoric had to stop.
A theme, or meme, was beginning to form in both echo chambers: that violence over political disagreements had no place in a democracy like the United States.
Has no place in the United States? History tells a different story.
How about the Hamilton-Burr duel of 1804? How about the scores of assassinations and near-assassinations of presidents, political candidates, and public figures over the nation’s history? How about John Brown’s raids, the physical altercations on the floor of Congress over slavery, the Civil War, and the violence of Jim Crow? How about the bombings during the anarchist movement and the brutal battles between management and labor during the early union movement? How about the race riots of the 1960s and the later bombings by the Weather Underground? How about the violence of the Black Panthers and the violent police response? How about the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention?
That’s just a sampling.
Unsurprisingly, the BBC also picked up the theme of violence having no place in a democracy. It usually mirrors CNN and other left-leaning American media in its coverage.
As with the case of most European media (and most American media), the BBC sees right-wingers everywhere but sees no left-wingers. Likewise, it sees threats to freedom and liberal democracy coming from the right but not from the left. They hold this delusion in spite of the historical horrors inflicted on Europe by communists and by the socialists known as fascists.
Admittedly, a BBC segment on another topic was very informative. The segment was about young Americans of Generation Z being infatuated with Vice President Kamala Harris. They follow her on special websites and on social media, finding her quirky, hip and funny.
I also wasn’t very wise at that age, but I took politics seriously and wanted serious politicians in charge. A fear of dying in Vietnam concentrated my thinking.
In any event, history shows how things will work out for Generation Z. As with the idealistic Flower Children of my generation, they will go on to march through America’s institutions, turning universities, government and media further left, a direction that doesn’t appear on the political compasses of BBC and CNN.
In conclusion, it is possible to learn something from the echo chambers. Just make sure that the door doesn’t lock behind you.
Mr. Cantoni can be reached at craigcantoni@gmail.com.