In Rooms Where Our Own Opinions Echo

This week, it happened again. Every time I’m in the United States, I happen to get caught in front of grumpy right-wing Fox News and its whining left-wing counterpart, MSNBC, the most one-sided channels you can imagine, where the most caustic question the program anchors ask to their own side is, “Can you explain why our opponents are so stupid?” It feels like rubbernecking — you know you shouldn’t look. It’s a terrible pity for everyone involved.

Most Americans I talk to think that these cable channels, along with the equally one-sided propaganda on the Internet, are one explanation for the polarized politics in the United States. The politically interested no longer experience a diversity of opinions in encounters with the press, colleagues or neighbors, but now stick to news sources that confirm everything they believe. So, we shut ourselves off inside small, air-tight chambers, in which our own opinions echo from the walls. It becomes difficult for democracy to survive in such an environment.

There may be something in that, but less than most people think. Cable news is not as dominant as it sometimes seems. Not even the most popular programs have viewing figures over 1 percent of voting Americans. More and more people who want news turn from TV to online sources, which may explain why television has become so shrill — the market now consists mainly of the politically engaged who mostly want a pat on the back. They certainly discourage their own politicians from bipartisan compromises, but their influence on the public is limited. And now, the numbers of Fox and MSNBC viewers are falling.

Those who watch these channels have a more mixed viewing diet than expected. A few years ago, economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro developed an “isolation index,” to see how isolated Americans are from the opinions of others. By examining the number of people to the right who just follow right-wing voices on different types of media and vice versa, they found that those who watch cable TV are actually isolated less from other opinions than the average newspaper reader. The fanatical party hangers-on are paradoxically better than the rest of us in following the other side. Those who watch Fox News the most do not close themselves off but often check up on left-wing media as well. These channels may be a threat to our mental health, but hardly to democracy.

Even more interesting are the study’s comparisons of the social contexts we idealize. It turns out that workplaces are more segregated opinion-wise than the media, and even worse is the neighborhood. The worst are families and friends, which often have a consensus of opinion that makes Fox News panel discussions appear “fair and balanced.” A cozy Friday night in with our nearest and dearest makes for the worst chamber of echoes.