Lies over facts

To the Editor:

The first hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection focused on the emotional testimony of four Capitol police officers who desperately tried to defend the Capitol against the attack. They gave first-hand accounts of being overran, assaulted, and called “traitors” by rioters.

Prominent Republicans, such as Mitch Mcconnell, said they had better things to do than to watch it. Neither did millions of Trump followers who depend on hard-right news channels to inform them.

There were three major television news networks when I grew up with anchors David Brinkley, Chet Huntley (NBC), Walter Cronkite (CBS), and Frank Reynolds (ABC).

They reported news in an unbiased manner regardless of their opinion. Their “just the facts” delivery was matter of fact, even dull. They told it straight without hyperbole, supported by the Fairness Doctrine

Conservatives complained this discriminated against them so they changed the narrative when the FCC, under President Reagan, dumped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. This freed conservative media to favor biased, emotionally charged, ideology over fair and unbiased reporting. As a result, Fox News has been forced to rely more on sensationalism as growing numbers of Trump followers switch to Newsmax and One America News.

This evolved into a generation brought up to embrace conspiracy theories over reality, lies over facts, and manufactured political garbage over science. They follow the hard-right black hole of disinformation on right-wing media and online forums.

Robert Dorroh

Sonora