A Major New Study Shows That Political Polarization Is Mainly A Right-Wing Phenomenon

[Saviolo]

From the article on WGBH News:

A major new study of social-media sharing patterns shows that political polarization is more common among conservatives than liberals — and that the exaggerations and falsehoods emanating from right-wing media outlets such as Breitbart News have infected mainstream discourse.

The CJR study, by scholars at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, at Harvard Law School, and the MIT Center for Civic Media, examined more than 1.25 million articles between April 1, 2015, and Election Day. What they found was that Hillary Clinton supporters shared stories from across a relatively broad political spectrum, including center-right sources such as The Wall Street Journal, mainstream news organizations like the Times and the Post, and partisan liberal sites like The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

By contrast, Donald Trump supporters clustered around Breitbart — headed until recently by Stephen Bannon, the hard-right nationalist now ensconced in the White House — and a few like-minded websites such as The Daily Caller, Alex Jones' Infowars, and The Gateway Pundit. Even Fox News was dropped from the favored circle back when it was attacking Trump during the primaries, and only re-entered the fold once it had made its peace with the future president.

What's at issue here is not just asymmetrical polarization but asymmetrical news consumption. The left and the center avail themselves of real journalism, however flawed it may be, while the right gorges on what is essentially political propaganda — all the while denigrating anything that contradicts their worldview as “fake news.”

Link to the article: http://news.wgbh.org/2017/03/15/politics-government/major-new-study-shows-political-polarization-mainly-right-wing

So, feel free to reach out to all of the self-styled "centrists," "moderates," and "libertarians" who tell you that the problem is on both sides, or even worse that the problem is equal on both sides, and say nope! The right gleefully stuffs their faces with junk food "news" while those from the centre to the left have a varied diet that includes actual journalism.

Those far-right propaganda misinformation sides like InfoWars, Breitbart, etc... are their safe space.

[unblock]

1. no shit.

[ginnyinWI]

2. true in my case!

I am a wide consumer of news, all reality based!

[Turbineguy]

3. "Let's compromise...

and do it my way!"

The Right Wing mantra tuned to the "reasonable" setting.

[Saviolo]

6. They've gotta drag that Overton Window, donchaknow?

The political right has been expert at dragging the Overton Window to the right for decades, now. They'll espouse some far far right-wing idea, and when there is -any- push-back at all, they'll knock about 5% off the crazy and say, "See? Now I've compromised."

I want to see the left do this, too.

I want a Democrat to stand up and demand a 100% tax on anyone making over $1m/year. This will, of course, cause wailing and gnashing of teeth on the right, so, take a step back and say, "Okay, we'll compromise, only a 90% tax on anyone making over $1m/year. See? Now I've compromised." and see if we can't drag that window back to the left some.

[Turbineguy]

7. They've got language for that?

Yes, they do. Overton Window. Thanks!

[Saviolo]

8. Yeah, shook my world when I learned that term

It is so extremely useful as a tool to frame a dialogue.

[Initech]

4. They needed to have a study for this?

[Orsino]

5. No shit. Big Money generally wants to buy only right-wing crazy. n/t