...PBS News Hour co-anchor Jeffrey Brown said during a weekend talk at Western Washington University.
A generation ago, before cable news channels and internet news sources, most people got their news from the same small collection of sources: three major TV networks and a hometown newspaper or two, Brown said. People gathered around their televisions for the assassination of a president, a walk on the moon, and other major events.
"It was an age of mass media news, one audience sharing a common experience," Brown said. "For the most part, the mass audience experienced such things together."
Benghazi is demonstrating how important it has been to bust the media monopoly. All the "mainstream" media networks, with the exception of Fox, have tried strenuously to spike the story, at least until after the election, and Obama is safely in office for the duration (or not).
"For the most part, we now live in the world of niches," Brown said.
He acknowledged that the availability of more choices was a good thing, but also noted that the change seems to be part of a far more divided and bitter political atmosphere.
"If we only connect with like-minded people, how do we hear other views?" Brown asked. "It's hard not to feel it has some relationship to the divisions around us."
I, for one, have no problem hearing the liberal side of arguments. I get the WAPO in the morning, and see CNN and MSNBC on the tube regularly (although, I confess, I can barely bear to linger any length of time on the puerile MSNBC).
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