If you spend enough time with national news, it’s easy to come away thinking the country is completely split in two — two sides, two realities, two versions of what’s true.
That divide is real, but it’s also reinforced by how people consume media. Cable audiences tend to sort themselves into ideological camps. Viewers choose the version of the world that fits what they already believe. Some media outlets have discovered there’s money in it — keeping the divide alive, widening it, feeding the rage.
But at the local level, people who disagree about politics are still living in the same neighborhoods, driving the same roads, dealing with the same weather, and paying the same taxes. And they all need the same information to get through the day.
