A disturbing trend long ago infected the world of cable news and is now, I believe, worming its way into the world of IT news and analysis.
Let’s take an honest look at the cable news landscape. The most complex of issues are usually summed up in 30-second sound bites (that’s down from 60-seconds), and are often incorrectly framed as questions with simple, yes/no answers. Are you for X? Are you against Y? Hurry up, we haven’t got all day… The controversy of an issue takes precedence over any actual facts. No controversy? Then let’s create some so that we can report on that. Many stories are driven by personalities rather than by objective reporters, who are also unencumbered by any data. This situation holds true regardless of your political persuasions.
Of course the majority of complex issues can’t be successfully dealt with in this shotgun, fact-free fashion. Rather, they require thoughtful analysis and a little explanation. A policy point might have substantial background data to consider, may vary with the particulars of the situation we are facing, and may even exhibit the dreaded shades of gray that are so anathema to our increasingly binary public discourse.
Our gut tells us that things are a little more complex than what we see on cable news, but we go along with it over time. Everyone’s doing it, that’s just the way it is. Yet it seems disconnected from the complicated, multifaceted world that we live in.