Former President Obama says that Fox News and the proliferation of social media have increased the current political divide in America.
"I think a lot of that has to do with changes in how people get information," Obama said during an interview with The 19th published on Monday. "I’ve spoken about this before, but if you watch Fox News, you perceive a different reality than if you read The New York Times. And those differences have been amplified by social media, which allows people to live in bubbles with other people who think like them."
Obama said it has become clear to him that the country today is "more divided than when I first ran for president in 2008."
"America has been fractured by a combination of political, cultural, ideological and geographical divisions that seem to be deeper than just differences in policy," he said.
Obama said President Biden Joe BidenBiden prepares to confront Putin Ukrainian president thanks G-7 nations for statement of support Biden aims to bolster troubled Turkey ties in first Erdoğan meeting MORE, his former vice president, is the right person to work to close that divide.
"But if anyone can help bridge our divides, it’s Joe Biden," he said. "He’s spent his life bringing people together. And as president, he’s been focused on beating back the pandemic and rebuilding our economy — ideas that Americans from both parties can support."
Since leaving the White House, Obama has attacked Fox News on multiple occasions, using the network as a foil for pushing so-called birther conspiracy theories and drumming up what he often dismissed as needless and partisan opposition to his policy agenda during his eight years in office.
“If I watch Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me,” he said in 2017. “I would watch it and say who is that guy? This character Barack was portrayed in weird ways. It is all edited and shaped. ... The point is, you get multiple realities.”
Obama most recently attacked the network in an endorsement video for Biden when the former Delaware senator was running for the Democratic nomination.
AssCalloway on June 14th, 2021 at 19:03 UTC »
There is so much stuff that Fox TV never ever ever talks about. Like Jan 6. They won't even accept an advert from policeman about January 6th
Drewy99 on June 14th, 2021 at 18:38 UTC »
Seriously though, as an outsider it is so weird that one of your political parties lives in a fantasy world worshiping Trump as Jesus reincarnated. The rest of the world sees him for the goof he is and laughs accordingly.
Edit: to the "same can be said about Obama" people, no it cant. The level of Trump worship is cultish and fucking weird. Obama was a respected politian and that's it. Not a god emperor, just a guy. If people choose to remember him for more that's because he earned it, not because he whined in Twitter that he needs to be respected because hes "everybody's favorite President!". The level of Trump fetish by dudes is the political equivalent of the bro job joke, but in real life. Grow the fuck up, they're politicians, nothing more.
whileoceaniasleeps on June 14th, 2021 at 18:37 UTC »
Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation have done more to poison the public discourse and foment right-wing populism across the western democracies than anything else. Not to say that's the whole story, but so much of the current miasma of stupidity, violent partisanship, and contrarianism to basic facts we're staring straight down the barrel of can be laid directly at the feet of that fucking awful corpse of a man and his company.
Media broader has its own problems, for sure, but if you watch Fox News on the regular you're just mainlining propaganda and reacting to a whole separate set of facts designed to piss you off over low nutrient culture bullshit and send you to the ballot box to pull the lever for the donor class and its beneficiaries. It is literally the propaganda clearinghouse that its former CEO and Nixon aide Roger Ailes wished would have been around to save Nixon from his impeachment.