4 Ways I Wish MSNBC Was Different
A political newbie, I seek to be better informed by the news
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I have the honor of being a beta reader for a book on politics. This upcoming book is about how we can take a more reasoned approach to our policy talks and decisions.
A political n00b—I voted for the first time in 2020—I never formed a news-following habit precisely because the mainstream coverage didn’t feel like what I really wanted. Fortunately, though, I am facing these feelings now. I am back in a home environment where I see a lot of MSNBC on the tv, and this time, I’m paying more attention.
Here is what I’ve learned lately from watching this United States news channel.
(Feel free to skim or skip this list if you need to.)
- Trump continues to lie and say the 2020 election was rigged. Most Republicans won’t stand up to his dishonesty, but Liz Cheney did. Now the Republican Party of Wyoming refuses to recognize her as a Republican anymore.
- A representative from Arizona, Paul Gosar (or someone on his staff) posted a bad video. It was an animated video that depicted him killing a colleague on the other side of the aisle — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The House of Representatives voted to censure him. Even three of his siblings appeared in interviews, criticizing his character. (No violent jokes, please, especially if you’re a leader!)
- A teenager shot several people last year during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He has been on trial, and he got acquitted on all 5 charges. I think the general consensus on MSNBC was that this verdict sets a bad precedent, that people can just waltz into a situation with their gun and use “self-defense” as a defense, when they were the one who started it.
- An innocent person named Ahmaud Arbery was murdered in an apparent hate crime, so there is a trial for that, too.
- Republicans are upset about critical race theory and have been banning it in schools where they can.
- COVID booster shots. Yay! Recommended. Lots of COVID stuff. “Just listen to the CDC and don’t be an anti-vaxxer” is the gist.
- Another guy, Steve Bannon, who is tight with Trump, has been on trial over something else. It has to do with what the heck happened on January 6th, when some Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capital Building, which they’re still trying to figure out.
- There’s an infrastructure package signed by President Joe Biden that’s supposed to be bipartisan, but most Republicans didn’t vote for it. The ones who did were rebuked by members of their own party for being “traitors.” The Build Back Better Act passed into law on November 19th, 2021. Oh, and somebody on Twitter called Speaker Nancy Pelosi a GOAT.
Which must be a compliment, because goats are the best.
That’s it! Sorry it was such a long list.
And you can tell I haven’t been paying that close of attention, but the list gives you an idea of what MSNBC is filling my brain with.
I am learning new things to get more acquainted with politics. But I also feel fuzzy, and foggy.
Below, I will share the things that I believe would help me feel less confused. If MSNBC were different in the following ways, I reckon I would have a stronger understanding of what is going on in the land of politics.
1. I wish political views were more clearly explained
One of the awesome concepts from the book I’m beta-reading is:
Political discussion is clearer when we can distinguish between our values/vision, and the means by which to get there. In philosophy, these are called “normative” matters versus “empirical” matters.
If we look at what Democrats think, versus what Republicans think (not that it’s even that black-and-white), we can break everything down into 2 steps. First, there are the core values, or the moral aims—what it is that we deem most important. This is the normative step. After that, there’s the how-to. Based on empirical evidence, what policies do we think will best achieve our aims?
Clarity about these 2 basic stages of reasoning can easily get lost amid emotional rhetoric.
I wish I could give an example of how political views are often not explicitly described on MSNBC. But full disclosure, my attention difficulties are preventing me from doing that right now. Instead, let me at least show how it could look if MSNBC did do a clear breakdown:
Senator So-and-so, who is against the infrastructure bill, in his speech cited a debt-free America and blah-blah-blah as reasons to be opposed. As evidence of why the bill would be bad, he referred to what happened in 1970-something the last time we spent this much money on whatchamacallit.
Meanwhile, Senator Such-and-such is in favor. She considers climate action to be a top global priority. In her view, this package is the best available means by which to address that priority and protect our planet, while simultaneously reducing poverty. Similar measures were effective in the country of Maritria, according to a meta-analysis published in The Sciency Tribune.
The news anchor could freely side with Ms. Such-and-such, and explain the holes they see in So-and-so’s reasoning. Yet we would still walk away from the news able to neutrally summarize the two politician’s views. We would grok what their better intentions are—including any overlap or common ground. From there, we would understand which paths they believe best, and why.
By seeing others’ opinions be laid out with more precision, it helps me sharpen up my own ideas, too.
And that brings me to my next “I wish.”
2. I wish MSNBC would help me understand where Republicans are coming from, rather than just convincing me they are crazy
My high-school anthropology professor taught us the difference between cultural relativism and moral relativism. We don’t have to think every culture is equally good. But we can seek to know their customs and their ways of thinking the way an insider would.
Likewise, I want to have some political relativism (is that a word?) that can help me understand Republicans.
It doesn’t bother me that MSNBC has a “liberal bias” (while Fox News has a conservative one). True neutrality seems impossible to define, anyhow, and the average of all perspectives is not necessarily the correct one.
Whichever way a particular news network leans, I just wish more of them had an “empathy-for-the-opposing-side bias.” Because if they did, I feel like we would collectively end up more satisfied with the state of our discourse.
3. I wish they covered more international and nonhuman animal issues
A person can dream?
Of course I am content with a U.S. human news station covering primarily U.S. human affairs. I just wish the news would acknowledge the following realities more often:
- The U.S. is currently the 7th richest nation. Disease, violence, and poverty in many places are more prevalent or severe than they are here. We can keep an eye on how the rest of Earth is doing, including any positive or negative impacts our country’s activities are having internationally.
- The suffering of nonhuman animals is a pressing and genuine issue, given that they constitute the vast majority of sentient beings. Unfortunately, humans directly inflict harm upon many of these animals. Therefore, as a species and a nation, we bear the responsibility that comes with our power. Update: As of March 15, 2023, I suggest that Sentient Media and Animals & Media are excellent resources for journalists seeking to cover animal individuals, groups, and the issues that impact them more effectively.
4. I wish it was less about “breaking news” and more about wider trends
Okay, so MSNBC definitely talks trends. They put news stories in the broader context of how our democracy is being threatened, for example, or how racism is an ongoing issue, or how the Republican Party’s standards of decency have been lowered by Trump.
However, it seems the MO of any news station is to start with “look what shocking thing just happened” (the breaking news). Then they make it relevant to a larger narrative.
I guess this is part of the appeal—to feel you are being immediately updated on alarming incidents—but overall, learning about policy and historical trends would be more informative.
Johnny Harris talked about this in his video “I’m a Journalist Who Hates The News.” News stations tend to focus on deviations from the norm—such as murders, attacks, and politicians saying dumb things. Our worldview thus distorts towards these exceptional (and depressing) occurrences. We miss the forest for the trees, and sometimes feel we are at a gossip convention.
Criminal trials—a very common subject on MSNBC and other news stations—are about wrongdoing, who is to blame, and how they ought to be punished. The very topic primes us to feel emotionally polarized and vindictive. Could we base a greater bulk of our news stories around people who have done admirable deeds, and let more of the crime-committing remain nameless?
Despite my complaints, I’m actually hooked on MSNBC, and I’m excited about where I’ll go from here
As inattentive as I can be around the parental tv, MSNBC news anchors have grown on me. I was elated when Katy Tur returned from her maternity leave. My interest was piqued when I learned of Nicolle Wallace’s Republican past serving the George W. Bush administration and John McCain campaign, and discovered she is also a political novelist.
In a piece written for MSNBC’s website, Nicolle called Trump’s attack on U.S. democracy our greatest threat since 9/11.
In many ways, it is more difficult to defend against. After 9/11, no one called the hijackers “normal tourists.” No one denied the horror. The fight against domestic violent extremism in our military, law enforcement and communities may be the most fraught counterterrorism effort in modern history. Untangling it from right-wing disinformation and propaganda will require constant vigilance.
I love her passion for trying to expose and right the wrongs of her former group affiliation.
Also, I like the way MSNBC reports positively on Republicans they find common ground with, such as Cindy McCain when she endorsed Joe Biden last year, or Liz Cheney when she spoke out against Donald Trump’s dishonesty.
Zeeshan Aleem’s MSNBC online post about the Rittenhouse trial helps me feel like I actually understand the situation now. Which reminds me: I am often better at digesting information in written form. I might be less complaint-prone if I were reading MSNBC in studious silence as opposed to having it emanate from a tv screen, often while I’m trying to focus on other things.
I also question why I have written a whole post about things I wish were different about MSNBC. Whatever ever happened to the Political Positivity Fairy? This isn’t my proudest post. But oh well. I wrote it, and I might as well share how I was processing my experience of watching the news as a political newbie.
Suffice it to say, there are a lot of things I wouldn’t change about MSNBC. I do want to take a peek at Fox News at some point, for balance, but if that one were on in the house all day I don’t know how I’d handle it!
My dad, who is battling dementia, has long been passionate about being politically informed, as was my proud Democrat aunt from Wisconsin. It feels good to finally begin reflecting that value of theirs, while finding my own authentic way to participate in politics.
What’s next?
- I hope to read more MSNBC essays like that Nicolle Wallace one I linked. The station asked a bunch of their anchors to do posts on “where we’ve been—and where we are going.” Seems like a great way to comprehend the bigger pictures of what I’ve been watching.
- My dad doesn’t mind which news station is on, so I might keep it switched to CNN more of the time. As of 2015, CNN was found by Politifact to be significantly more factual than MSNBC (which is still more fact-based than Fox).
- C-SPAN I also love!
- I’ll keep exploring the question of what “keeping up with the world” means to me. And how best to do that, with or without exposure to traditional news outlets. I’ve usually been watching fictional cartoons while doing my cardio in the evenings, but I’ll see if I could start listening to informative podcasts or YouTube videos while I sweat, instead.
I want to know: What “news” do you consume that feeds your brain, that makes you feel you legitimately understand people, and the world, better and better each time?
Even if I can’t find it on the family cable television, I’m happy to sit in my corner, pop open my laptop, and read or listen to your favorite news—North American or otherwise—with my headphones in. :)
