Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Sunday, July 20, 2008

We don’t have to hear the other side, and it’s our loss

By Richard Mial / La Crosse Tribune

I was sitting in the kitchen, watching Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, when my wife came in and caught me.

She called me an “evil-doer.”

I don’t particularly like O’Reilly. The conservative talk-show commentator often comes across as a bully. But I was flipping through the channels, trying to see what everyone was saying.

It used to be that people watched one of three television networks for news (four, if you count public broadcasting). There, you got a more-or-less straightforward account, without a lot of outright opinion.

But now the opinion is part of the show — whether it’s on the radio, where conservatives (and often mean-spirited right wingers) are dominant, or on television, where there is a mix of conservative and liberal shows.

If we’re careful about what we watch, we never have to hear the other side. I think that’s a big problem.

I see the results in letters to the editor. Elsewhere on today’s page is an anti-Barack Obama letter that typifies the mean approach to political debate.

But it isn’t just conservatives who can get nasty. There’s a new Web site called “Kapanke watch,” which has a large, grimacing photo of the Republican state senator, with light-colored text with the words “Kapanke watch,” and then this: “Keeping tabs on Dirty Dan Kapanke, the radical right wing’s go-to guy.”

That seems really over the top. But today, it’s not enough to disagree with someone; you’ve got to destroy the person.

I don’t even know who is behind the “Kapanke watch” Web site. And, probably we’ll never know.

It’s interesting that both left and right refer to the “mainstream media,” and both think that they are solidly within the opposition camp, whatever that is. But the same people might regard the opinion shows on Fox News or MSNBC as neutral and unbiased.

I’ve found out over the years that when somebody accuses me of being “biased,” it just means that we don’t share each other’s biases.

We don’t have to pay attention to those who don’t share our views. We know they’re not only wrong, but they probably have horns. We’re all becoming evil-doers.

Contact Opinion page editor Richard Mial at (608) 791-8232, or by e-mail at rmial@lacrossetribune.com.