Save Political Debate. Bring Back ‘Crossfire.’
This article is for subscribers only.
Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Cable-television shows aboutpolitics are often blamed for polarizing Americans. To thisway of thinking, they are responsible for much of theincivility of today’s political culture and have made itharder for us to work together to solve our problems.
This concern seems overblown to me. While the showsdon’t help, their effect is probably small. The mainsources of polarization lie elsewhere (especially, I wouldargue, in the way that courts have put social issues at thecenter of national politics).