On a cold evening earlier this month, I chatted with some volunteers at Trump Force 47 Headquarters in Philadelphia. A few of us sat in a small room waiting for the start of a training course aimed at recruiting a team of “campaign captains.”

The campaign headquarters is located in front of a small store on a deserted street in Holmesburg, on the northeastern outskirts of the city. The walls were covered in pictures of Donald Trump, and on the campaign staff’s desk was a small whiteboard with the words “27 days to victory.” I signed up for the event hoping to be a fly on the wall.

Lauren, a young woman wearing a leather jacket and boots, said she had already knocked on 160 doors and was aiming to reach her goal of 200 as she proudly campaigned for Trump. Adam, an older African-American man, had gone all the way. From Germantown for this event. He called himself a “music guy” and was wearing a T-shirt under his hoodie that read, “I love Trump because he pisses off all the people I don’t like.”

But the most interesting member of this small group was Martha, a neatly dressed middle-aged woman with short blonde hair who had driven more than an hour from another town. He said after talking to many of his friends who supported Harris, he realized things were going in the “wrong direction” and that he needed to “get off my ass and do something.”

Next to Martha, Wayne, a middle-aged man wearing a lumberjack shirt and red MAGA hat, offered his views on the Democrats: “When I look at the election ads, they are complete lies. How could they be allowed to do this? And Kamala is so pointless. “He knows nothing about politics and international relations.”

Martha responded: “But they are the mainstream media that the left controls, and they are very good at deceiving the masses. Kamala is an expert in projection.”

Then it was Wayne’s turn: You know Harris and Walz get along 60 Minutes and all this? So my mother would watch 60 Minutes. May God have mercy on him, he passed away last year. But in the last few years he watched 60 MinutesI would sit and watch with him. Then my blood started to boil with all the lies, deceit and propaganda. And I said, ‘Mom, I’m sorry I had to go.’ ‘I can’t take this anymore.’”

“Yes, the mainstream media on the left is all about brainwashing and censorship,” Martha said.

I asked Martha, “So where do you go if you want to find reliable and accurate information?” I asked.

“Well, I usually go to Twitter. “Fox News is pretty good and NewsMax is good too,” he replied.

It became clear then that Martha and many other Trump supporters saw themselves as underdogs fighting against the powerful “mainstream” media on the left. According to Martha, Fox News was not considered “mainstream.” highest views It ranked among any of the three major cable news networks for the 43rd consecutive month, ahead of MSNBC and CNN.

During my two-month stay in the United States, I overdosed on election coverage on cable television. My excuse was that despite the hype that this was a “TikTok election,” research He argues that this will still be a “cable news election” and that fierce political battles are still raging in legacy media.

As I predicted, Fox News and NewsMax have studiously avoided covering anything that disparages Trump in the slightest, while doing their best to amplify the problems and issues facing Harris and the Democrats. At the other end of the spectrum, MSNBC regularly demonized Trump (with strong support from the Republican candidate) while also touting Democratic hopes.

There is little diversity of opinion or real debate at either end of the spectrum.

A Democratic voter in Philly commented on the media landscape in the United States: “You’ve got MSNBC on the left, you’ve got Fox on the right, but there’s nothing in the middle.”

He was both right and wrong. On the one hand, there are many media organizations among them. New York Times, Washington PostNPR, CBS, CNN and others. But on the other hand, while these broadcasts may not side with Harris the way MSNBC does, they do regularly air views that are mostly in Harris’ favor.

It also seems like acceptable practice for media outlets like NPR, CNN, and others. New York Times Simply labeling Trump as a liar. Instead of reporting what he said and fact-checking (as Australia’s ABC generally aims to do), his reporters simply say: “Trump lied again when he said…”

But considering Trump like that A. proven Should journalists who make lying a habit still apply the ritual of objective journalism to them? This has been a major debate since he burst onto the scene. Some people claim that because the Republican nominee was not announced sooner, reporters allowed his rise. Now, it seems that much of the “mainstream media on the left” has decided to go against traditional “objective” reporting and cover Trump by simply “telling it like it is.”

Matthew LevenduskyTrump, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, helped me understand where Martha’s view of the “mainstream media on the left” was coming from, noting that Republicans have a long-standing strategy of attacking the media dating back to those times. “Trump may be the god of this trend” despite Richard Nixon.

Right-wing media like Fox News and talk-back radio, as well as celebrity elites like Elon Musk, have gone a long way toward undermining the American public’s trust in the media. Conservative commentators on Fox and shock-jock radio often refer to outlets outside this ecosystem as “mainstream media controlled by the left.”

“American society is so polarized” is a phrase many people often repeat. journalistspoliticians, influential commentators and ordinary citizens. But the truth may not be that simple.

Although individuals who volunteer to campaign for Trump or Harris tend to be highly motivated and have strong beliefs, the majority voters They will either vote Republican even though they don’t like Trump, or they will vote Democrat even though they don’t like Trump. reservations About Harris. Many may prefer one party over the other, but they do not go to the polls because of their indecisiveness or uncertainty about either candidate or some of their policies.

Research He argues that American society, like all other societies, has many shades of gray. Elite politics by people who live and breathe politics like that polarized and participants tend to using social media to amplify their extreme views, thus giving the impression that the entire society is divided. In reality, ordinary people think that American society is much more polarized than it actually is, and when it comes down to it, Americans agree more on things than they disagree on.

Americans are average moderate on most policy choices. But the “culture wars” of politics involve insulting each other; This obscures commonalities by activating emotions related to differences in sensitivity or social identity.

It’s now a cliché to say that American society is polarized, but that’s a bit of a myth. The truth is that the media and social media may be creating this impression through a trend towards increasing partisanship in their reporting.