Alas, Poor History, I Knew You Well.

I have, of late, through no choice of my own been subjected to hours upon painful hours of Fox "news". Were I to list everything about this network that disturbed me, I would be writing a novel as opposed to a blog, so I'll spare you the discomfort.
The individual who has so unknowingly caused me to suffer the torment of faux news (thanks Chris Dennett!) is someone that I care for and regard highly. Someone who is from a different time, who believes that news should be news should be news. She watches this channel every morning. At first I asked myself "why? Why would anyone want to watch this? And if she's watching this, does she believe it?" I have to believe that the people who prescribe to what I liberally (yuck yuck) call the "Fox News Melodramas" have to have some idea that this is all the equivalent of a really poorly written soap opera, should anyone believe that there were such a thing as a poorly written soap opera.
See, the thing is, I'm a chronic optimist. I know that those of you who know me well are rolling on the floor in hysterics right now, but seriously. Cynical? Yes. But there has always been this part of me that always assumes that things, eventually will turn out OK; that everyone eventually will wake up and realize that whether it's liberal or conservative, the media tends toward fiction at best and licentiousness at worst.
I believe that the problem stems from our tendency as humans to look for confirmation of what we already believe. I myself am not immune to this practice. An example: I hate Oliver Cromwell. I know. Everyone gasp. In my opinion, however remarkable his military genius, he was a bigot and a bully. So I go to the library looking for historical information on Mr. Cromwell. No particular reason, just curious about the life of this person whose memory (having never had the pleasure) I despise.
Once arrived I find three books, all biographies, two of which are celebrating his achievements in England. I don't want this. I want grit. I want to hear someone echo the point of view I've already chosen. Cromwell: the slayer of my Irish ancestors. The man who rode into Ireland and slaughtered men, women, and children just for being Irish. So I choose the only one of the three books that has any mention of his devastation of Ireland (in the synopsis of course) entitled Cromwell: An Illustrated History. The author is one Helen Litton. I take it home, I dive right in...I read a bit about his life...OK. Fine. Everyone has a life. I read a little about his religious tolerance.....k.
Then, at last, we get to Ireland. Finally! Vindication! Death and dismemberment at the hands of the round heads....What I wasn't counting on, was this little piece of information that popped out at me.
Cromwell shared the prejudices of most of his countrymen. He did not see the Irish as human beings on a level with himself; they were much lower on the scale, and were not necessarily to be treated as civilized enemies, by the accepted rules of war (Litton, pg 48)
....ok...so what does one say when one has suddenly confronted the fact that the actions of an individual who has been so long demonized in one's opinion may not stem from some deep rooted evil. They stem from the upbringing of a narrow and intolerant society; that my disapproval, while not necessarily undeserved, may have rested wholly on the wrong individual instead of giving credit to the intolerance, bigotry, and misinformation that popular society and the media had projected upon the people with whom I so deeply sympathize.....
Point? I come back to Fox News. Pick an issue. Any issue. The "mosque" that's not really a mosque at all. The widespread broadcast of the protest for the "mosque" that is to be built "at ground zero" two blocks away, amid other already existing mosques. The interview, broadcast on Fox News, that shows a construction worker opposed to the "mosque" saying that it would be dangerous for any outside worker to try and build that "mosque" in Union Town USA.
I feel like this is a parallel. We watch our news stations with blind faith, trusting that they're going to give us good information, upon which we can direct our moral compasses. When instead, we picket, we protest, we deprive, and we turn our backs on a founding principal of this country. Freedom. Freedom of religion to be specific. At what point do we walk into the Middle East and cut down every man, woman, and child simply because they're Middle Eastern and aren't fit to be considered on the same level of humanity as we?...wait....