@HaleyBarbour: Conservative media as biased as liberal media against GOP establishment

Charlie Mitchell: Barbour sees media as fuel for polarization

So, Barbour said, there’s been a balkanization. Conservatives flock to conservative media, and liberals flock to liberal media.

While all that’s pretty obvious, Barbour’s concern was the effect this has on political conversations:

“For me, I think the conservative media have become as biased as the liberal media except as against the Republican establishment,” he said. Why? “It has become about purity.” The quest to attract and retain an audience, Barbour said, has pushed the left more to the left and the right more to the right. “It has become about if you don’t vote right (meaning as those at the extremes desire) about every subject every time you’re not a good Republican or a good conservative.”…

…If the sun is setting on generations of compromise in America, then, as Barbour said, it’s not such a good thing. Power politics — my way or the highway — is the opposite of democracy.

ClarionLedger
10/10/16