this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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In 2014 John Oliver had a segment on Last Week Tonight where he had "a statistically representative climate change debate", where he brought out 3 scientists arguing against human affected climate change and 97 arguing for it.
https://youtu.be/cjuGCJJUGsg?t=3m3s
Right, that's the thing.
I honestly believe part of the problem this country is in today started when the news media felt they had to give equal time to every issue. I remember lots of segments on climate change where they had one person on each side, and I could understand most people coming away believing we just don't know. And it's not just climate change, they did that with everything.
So here we are, polarized like never before, with so many believing that every opinion is legitimate. Sure, you can believe what you want, but if you believe the world was created 6000 years ago, you're just wrong. You're entitled to believe something wrong, but that doesn't make it valid. A legitimate news site should reflect that. A climate denier or a creationist shouldn't get equal time. Same with do many issues.
We can thank Reagan for the situation with the news. He got rid of the Fairness Doctrine which mandated broadcasters both present controversial issues of public importance and do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.