Wednesday 27 November 2013

The Best Non-Partisan Political Information Is Not Presented By Either Side Of The Argument

By Angela Briggs


In the search for non-partisan political information, a viewer, reader or listener has their work cut out for them. There used to be things called newspapers that would report on both sides of any political issue. They would report facts, which this type of information is composed of. They do not do this, largely, as they have taken sides. What is now reported, even on television, radio and over their outlets on the Internet is what their political party wants them to report.

News junkies used to be able to switch between a few channels on the television or radio and get a good idea about things. There are more media outlets, given the Internet and additional channels because of cable and satellite, however, this has not helped in the matter. In order for truly non partisan information, there must be a desire to respect people enough to give them facts.

Presenting facts, by the talking heads, would not be in their best interests, or so they believe. Political subject matter, in order to be valuable in their minds, must be what the voters want to hear. This makes it extremely important that the information presented be weighted by good sounding comments. This has ushered in bumper sticker politics. None of this is helpful to news junkies as they do not get anywhere near enough informative reporting.

Health care talking points would be a good example of this unbalanced data. Reciting facts that would stand up to any scrutiny is not what is in their best interests. Instead of the listing of numbers dealing with how many people are satisfied with their insurance, we get the very partisan explaining that we do not know what we are talking about. This misguided information would have us believe that, because of 30 million people, we need to change the health care insurance industry for 317 million people.

When all of the content presented is emotional it is a good indicator of partisan rhetoric. Take the example of gun control. The assertion that any gun held by any legal resident means just one more dangerous gun that is on the streets is an emotional appeal. It says nothing about what should actually be done because it would cause these proponents to deal with mental health issues, not law abiding citizens.

One of the places where you think you would be able to find truly factual subject matter should be a debate between the sides. You might think that if you hear one side and then the other side it would balance out. This is not the case either because one side does not wish to appear to be mad at the other side. The other side does not wish you to know what they really think.

When looking for some of the websites that promise middle of the road coverage over all things political, analyze them carefully. Looking for the emotional content or the outright advertising that is usually present will indicate where they fall on each issue. There are some who are much better than others, but true fact based information is extremely hard to locate.

Non-partisan political information is facts. It generally will not bolster any particular side of a political issue. The recitation of facts may favor one side more than another, however, if there is emotional content within it, it is not factual and, therefore, quite partisan.




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