Thursday June 23 on a CNN special Obama & Amanpour, former president Barack Obama said he believes watching Fox News or listening to rightwing radio skews facts and makes “people fearful of each other.”
Obama said, “It wasn’t that long ago that I got a lot of Republican votes. It wasn’t that long ago where John McCain was the Republican nominee, and actively shut down a person at a town hall who was saying that I was an illegal alien and bent on imposing Sharia law. There is still a bunch of folks that are more politically conservative than I am on social issues on economic issues and who I consider good people and thoughtful people, I enjoy conversations with. So the polarizations that we have seen in international politics is not identical to what is happening on the ground here.”
He added, “What is true is that partly because of where people are getting their information these days, the silo wing of information, if you’re watching Fox News, or following some right-wing radio host, or getting Facebook feeds within the bubble, the reality is different than if you read the New York Times or watch your program. And such fundamentally different facts, or what they think to be facts and the worldviews are so skewed, one direction or another it’s very hard for democracy to work, and the foundation, and other work, and this kind of misinformation, not the kind that we see him engaging in, and not just during election time, but the constant demonization of the other side and making people fearful of each other.”
The hypocrisy and projection are breathtaking, aren’t they? Suggesting that Fox News is biased but CNN, the New York Times, and the antisemitic propagandist Christiane Amanpour are not takes incredible gall. Suggesting that “right-wing media” demonize the other side and make people fearful but left-wing media do not is mind-boggling gaslighting. But that’s the Democrat way.
