Can we trust the news?

We read a pretty provoking article about how the internet has affected our comfort zones. More specifically, there was a pretty strong stance from a respected journalist that said that the online media provides us with the ability to only listen to the things that we want to hear, making us more narrow-minded and less informed about important issues. I would like to turn the argument onto the reporter and say that all newscasting in general has become polarized and therefore panders to a certain audience. This means that newscasters and reporters know they have a certain population of people who believe a certain way and provide stories and information skewed to favor that viewpoint.
In simpler terms, news is now very biased and we enjoy it.

The polarization of the news often has large ties in the political separation that has occurred across the country and in Congress. News now often is about the political issues that divide the country. It has come to such a point that one can scroll through the TV guide and label each news station as either a Liberal or Conservative news network. The lack of un-partisan news networks occurs due to the same factors that contribute to the small number of independent candidates. In the polarized society, unless you take a partisan position it is hard to gain widespread and heavily involved support. It is this same process that has led to the recent rise of the Tea Party.

This is one of the reasons that I now look to the internet as a more reliable source of information. Al-Jazeera, currently one of the most unbiased news, started online during the Arab Spring. There are plenty of reliable news sources online and even some Youtubers who dedicate their channels to reporting and providing insight on recent events. The amount of fact-correcting on the internet is incredible. The common legends we learn are tossed to dust. For example, yesterday I learned the Taft never actually got stuck in the bathtub. It was simply a malicious rumor in a book written by a White House employee that he had fired. He had had the famous "custom bathtub" installed at the start of his presidency.

It is a little disconcerting how much misinformation is spread and how easily we accept it. Even when professionals are caught spreading misinformation we don't have many repercussions. The lady who pretended to be a doctor and spread the rumor that microwaving plastic containers would poison your food had no punishment, even though she affected so many people's daily routines. Even worse, it muddies the scientific field and causes people to doubt serious scientific breakthroughs. I wish we could comb over every scientific research for facts, but maybe we just need to learn to scrutinize and check the sources. Thanks for reading