As we sit fourteen days from the midterm elections, I want to challenge you to think for yourself.
After watching as much of the news coverage this season as I can stomach, I keep returning to a short list of questions:
1. Why is this story being brought to my attention?
2. Does this story matter to me?
3. Does this story affect me in any meaningful way?
4. Do I believe this story to be true?
5. Is this story attempting to educate me or manipulate me?
6. Is the person delivering it a journalist or a commentator?
7. Is the story itself designed to pull me emotionally to one side?
When I meet with clients, I do not shy away from current events. During an election cycle that tendency becomes even stronger, because clients naturally have more questions as the media works to stir emotion. Whether the news is political or financial, I pay attention to both. My job is to understand how events affect markets and, by extension, the people whose wealth I help manage. Unfortunately, with 24-hour news channels, nonstop political coverage, and the full range of social platforms, there is no shortage of opportunities to become outraged at the other side.
I am 54 years old. I do not remember all of the old anchors firsthand, but I remember Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Douglas Edwards, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings. Were they perfectly nonpartisan? Probably not. When they stepped over the line, however, you noticed. It did not happen all the time. Their job was to report the news, not to entertain us or keep us inside an echo chamber.
Sean Hannity of FOXNews and Kaitlan Collins of CNN can both be highly entertaining, but it is worth asking what each wants you to absorb. Hannity often says, “Let not your heart be troubled.” The line is designed to create an emotional connection and to position him as the one protecting you. Collins repeatedly opens with some version of “Straight from the source. I’m Kaitlan Collins and this is The Source.” The framing presents her as the neutral, authoritative voice that cannot be questioned. Both are skilled entertainers who are paid to reinforce how their audiences already think and to challenge those who see the world differently.
We now live in a period in which a politician, a CEO, or another influential person can speak, and the coverage immediately turns to “subject-matter experts” who explain what we just heard. Too often that is not education. It is manipulation, or something closer to indoctrination.
I wish we still lived in a time when news was simply news. Until then, the best defense is the habit of asking the questions above and deciding for yourself what is true, what matters, and what deserves your attention.