Network Propaganda

Book subtitled Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics by Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts, as reviewed here.  This highlights the difference supported by hard data. Hence it's not as easy as both sides are right and deserving of "free speech." When one side at the least espouses proven falsehoods, and at worse promotes hate and violence, then it's right to call it out and not give it equivalence with facts and common decency. But then again, common decency doesn't seem to be held in much esteem these days by that segment that denies science, facts, etc.

 "The Washington conventional wisdom presupposes a kind of symmetry between our polarized political parties. Liberals and conservatives, it is said, live in separate bubbles, where they watch different television networks, frequent different Web sites, and absorb different realities. The implication of this view is that both sides resemble each other in their twisted views of reality. Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, in other words, represent two sides of the same coin.This view is precisely wrong."

"The two sides are not, in fact, equal when it comes to evaluating 'news' stories, or even in how they view reality. Liberals want facts; conservatives want their biases reinforced. Liberals embrace journalism; conservatives believe propaganda. In the more measured but still emphatic words of the authors, 'the right-wing media ecosystem differs categorically from the rest of the media environment,” and has been much more susceptible to disinformation, lies and half-truths.'"