Media Comfort
We’d like to commend Greg Erlandson, the publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, for his column in the November 5, 2006, issue. He says: “Increasingly, these communications media are primarily used to reinforce what users already believe, which is why more Democrats listen to CNN and more Republicans listen to FOX, for example. With the occasional exception, these media are intended to serve up to people the expected and the comforting. The result is that one usually hears ‘the other side’ as described by ‘our side.'” How right he is. We know Greg to be a congenital moderate. But this ideological polarization just doesn’t affect moderates.
The title of his column is: “Why You Are an Idiot.” We don’t think that’s what he wanted to convey, or maybe he did. Who knows?
Media comfort is the enemy of media debate. If you don’t listen to all sides in politics, you are not staying intellectually sharp.
We think we get Greg’s point. He says: “Republicans hate the poor; Democrats want to cut and run; Republicans hate Mexicans; Democrats want to turn the country over to illegals — and on and on.” This is just propaganda. The Catholic Church is afflicted with this ideological polarization as well. We think Greg is saying: “Why can’t Catholics think with the mind of the Church?” Or at least we hope that’s what he’s saying.
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Our baptismal grace calls us to evangelize, and our distinctively lay task is to restore to people their lost human dignity and hope by bringing Christ to them.