Political discussion and a lack of emotional intelligence (1 Viewer)

When I watch CNN and other major media outlets it's pretty clear that their stories/programs/agenda are created and driven to elicit an emotional response.   

For example, instead of focusing on what is the right or wrong immigration policy, the stories focus on images of caged immigrants and inflammatory remarks made by the politicians.  

I see a lot of folks on social media and even this forum parroting the media headlines as some sort of emotional outburst or response to those media headlines without having a clue about actual policy or the political history of the policy.   My initial thought is that this person clearly lacks emotional intelligence and isn't aware of how they look or sound to others, not to mention their general lack of understanding of the issue and applicable laws to begin with.

Am I the only one that sees this or am I on an island here.  I'll hang up and listen.

Ofcourse the news focuses on the pathos. It's the easiest and most compelling sell. People here don't want to watch a 10 minute breakdown of legal policy talk or a history lecture on U.S. immigration. 

Ilov80s said:

Ofcourse the news focuses on the pathos. It's the easiest and most compelling sell. People here don't want to watch a 10 minute breakdown of legal policy talk or a history lecture on U.S. immigration. 

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Would you agree that this is part of a larger problem?

TripItUp said:

Would you agree that this is part of a larger problem?

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Absolutely. Though I think it's the fault of the customers not the news IMO. If people wanted detailed breakdowns or history lessons, CNN and FOX would air it. That's not what gets ratings though. Although, we also have to examine the limits of capitalism. The news used to be accepted as a loss for the networks. They ran the news because they had to but once it was figured out how make the news another source of revenue, we got rid of the fairness doctorine, have eliminated the need for local control of the airwaves to further favor consolidation. All of that has made the news worse IMO becuse it has given incentive to make the news appeal to that pathos since it is the easiest and most successful approach.

TripItUp said:

Am I the only one that sees this or am I on an island here.  I'll hang up and listen.

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Do you believe this emotional intelligence is lacking equally among liberals and conservatives?

Juxtatarot said:

Do you believe this emotional intelligence is lacking equally among liberals and conservatives?

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I see it on both sides.

TripItUp said:

For example, instead of focusing on what is the right or wrong immigration policy, the stories focus on images of caged immigrants and inflammatory remarks made by the politicians.  

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I am so sick of this tripe. I really am. 

If you want an intelligent discussion about immigration, the first step would be to stop supporting an administration who is caging immigrants. Yet you blame the media for reporting it rather than the people who are actually doing it. 

Stop supporting #######s and we’ll stop calling you out for supporting #######s. 

timschochet said:

I am so sick of this tripe. I really am. 

If you want an intelligent discussion about immigration, the first step would be to stop supporting an administration who is caging immigrants. Yet you blame the media for reporting it rather than the people who are actually doing it. 

Stop supporting #######s and we’ll stop calling you out for supporting #######s. 

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I think the criticism of the media and the people consuming it is that it has happened before and few people cared. 

Conditions in some of the countries that migrants are coming from have improved and you now hear far more about how terrible it is there. 

parasaurolophus said:

I think the criticism of the media and the people consuming it is that it has happened before and few people cared. 

Conditions in some of the countries that migrants are coming from have improved and you now hear far more about how terrible it is there. 

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My understanding is that though some bad stuff happened under Obama it is far worse now. 

But in any case I don’t care. If it was bad under Obama then it was bad. It’s bad right now and we have a President who wants it to be bad. And that’s an awful thing and the news should be reporting it as much as they can. 

As far as conditions in the countries they’re coming from having improved, there’s some evidence of that for sure. Whether or not they’ve improved to the point that we can reject migrants seeking asylum based on the notion that its not that bad where they’re from, that’s a different story. I don’t know the answer but I’d be skeptical of that being the fact. 

TripItUp said:

When I watch CNN and other major media outlets it's pretty clear that their stories/programs/agenda are created and driven to elicit an emotional response.   

For example, instead of focusing on what is the right or wrong immigration policy, the stories focus on images of caged immigrants and inflammatory remarks made by the politicians.  

I see a lot of folks on social media and even this forum parroting the media headlines as some sort of emotional outburst or response to those media headlines without having a clue about actual policy or the political history of the policy.   My initial thought is that this person clearly lacks emotional intelligence and isn't aware of how they look or sound to others, not to mention their general lack of understanding of the issue and applicable laws to begin with.

Am I the only one that sees this or am I on an island here.  I'll hang up and listen.

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1st, I’d like to point out that you are exactly describing a Trump morning watching Fox and Friends. 

I absolutely do this, I think, but I don’t watch TV news, I read 85% of my news, with some NPR and conservative am radio too. I read right wing news, left wing news, NPR, Rush, and I try to parse out what is actually happening and who is spinning it how and why. That’s a lot to digest in itself, and following specific policy and policy history for everything that pisses me off is impossible. I’m think it’s important to separate emotion from policy when voting. For instance, I may have an emotional post in the shootings thread, but when it comes to voting I really don’t care about gun rights one way or the other. I care more about things like spending and oversight over said spending. I also have nobody on my block list here so I can see/hear the opinions and follow the links of others, and is one reason I appreciate this community. You’re older than me, in a different tax bracket than me, have different views than me, live in a different area than me, so you have a different perspective than me. There’s a lot to learn there regardless of whether we agree. 

So sometimes I read or hear something and I’m outraged. Sometimes I take the time to do some digging, and sometimes it likely fades and I don’t think about it again until something similar happens.