A recent study from the University of Illinois claims 45% of respondents couldn’t decipher what was news and what was opinion when presented with different options. KFI AM-640 host John Kobylt believes that survey.
While discussing the results, Kobylt shared his belief that cable news and talk radio audiences only hear what they want to agree with.
“People want to hear what they want to hear. And people get mad at me all the time. We get comments and emails and things on social media, and they think I sold out one way or the other,” said Kobylt. “Look, I’m telling you what’s going on. I’ll tell you whether I agree or disagree, but I’m not making it up. And what I noticed is that people’s opinions say a lot more about them than it does me.
“People have really weird prisms that they look at life through and they have decided to invest emotionally and intellectually in ideologies and philosophies. And they’re impervious to the fact they’re impervious to news. If it contradicts what they believe, they just flat out don’t believe it.”
John Kobylt added that cable news outlets intentionally try to confuse their audiences, but the problem is exacerbated by viewers who solely look at news items through a political lens.
“The trend nowadays, especially on cable news, is a blurring of opinion. In fact, and depending on event, it’s mostly on partisan leanings. So people that hear something — and I see this with my friends on both sides — based on the political philosophy they’ve bought into that they’re emotionally connected to, two people look at the same story and get a wildly different interpretation of it,” he continued. “And both may think a story is biased. We can agree to disagree, but you can’t agree to disagree that two plus two equals 22.”