[guildwriter]

The amount of effort it takes these days to build a truthful picture of the situation is exhausting. Depending on the source of the article I have to do anywhere from 3-5 different kinds of searches to confirm if the assertions are actually true. I've taken to flat out ignoring certain sites now due to an established practice of ideological dishonesty. Partisanship is now not a reason alone to disregard a source, everyone is making their biases clearly known.

Add the bitter rancor and the constant ratcheting rhetoric, it actually for the first time makes me not want to listen anymore. I thought things would get better after the election. After about half a year of toxic rhetoric I was looking forward to some respite. If anything things are just getting worse.

Maybe this is the new normal. I really hope it's not.

[jhanschoo]

To be fair, the Trump administration makes it difficult to do reporting agnostic to partisanship. The administration vilifies media outlets that maintain an unfavorable opinion of the administration's policies and interests, even when that opinion is based in fact and good governance. It seems to expect the pseudo-PR relationship the media often has with companies, and has hinted at not entertaining press interviews with media outlets that criticize the administration's policies.

Under such a climate where fact is scarce, it seems that partisanship would only exacerbate.