Letter: We’ve become a nation of one-sided gossips

While criticizing the Herald’s editorial on “fake news” (Nov. 30), never once does Karl Hadley (Dec. 8) mention the importance of looking to see if something is true, accurate, or fair — only if it’s liberal or conservative, i.e., does it condemn/praise Obama/Trump?

Unfortunately, we’ve become a nation of one-sided gossips, with the right and left each listening and believing only the absolute worst said of the other, i.e., the juicy stuff! We’d much rather visit “dingaling.org,” and “heres-a-whopper.com” than fact-checkers and opposing views.

Karl both misses (and exemplifies) the point of the editorial he criticizes. He writes, “The past year, the media functioned as the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.” I wonder if he forgot that Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Beck, Savage, Laura Ingraham, George Will, Breitbart, Drudge, Michelle Malkin, the FOX News “Network” etc., etc. are also all part of “the media.”

The election was also not “a refutation of Obama’s policies, and … the liberal media,” as Hadley claimed. Rather, it was a refutation of politics as usual and big money in politics. Which is particularly ironic, considering Trump’s cabinet appointees!

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 4:34 AM with the headline "Letter: We’ve become a nation of one-sided gossips."