Politics as usual

All the controversy surrounding health care reform has made it clear that decisions aren’t made easily in Washington. Unfortunately, the difficulty usually has more to do with petty quarreling than any kind of deep contemplation. What’s more, the controversy usual spills over into the general populace as well. Most political debates aim to address important and complex issues, but the disinformation circulated by many news outlets and even some politicians can make a tough decision even tougher.
I feel that the media plays a part in the symbolic interactionist approach to sociology. We get informed about issues through the news. In symbolic interactionism, meaning is created through our interactions with one another and society. Therefore, our interactions with the news have a tremendous influence over us. That’s really where the problem begins. Two newspapers, on opposite ends of the political spectrum, can deliver conflicting facts. While they probably aren’t lying, they’ve definitely manipulated the data by ignoring certain factors or reporting half-truths. Also, we tend to take to heart the opinions of pundits that are hardly informed themselves. All of this leads to conflict.
The tenets of symbolic interactionism also tell us that we react to things based on their meaning. So the the sources of information we expose ourselves to help to determine our reactions to the issues we face. And sadly, the bias of news groups and politicians today has led to more division in Washington and in the country as a whole.
The situation is also exacerbated since many pundits like to oversimplify issues and profess that they have the answer. If the answers came that easily and the issues were so simple, they wouldn’t be discussing them in Congress.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of news groups and politicians out that deliver the facts along with meaningful and thoughtful proposals. However, there are many that don’t; if you'd like to avoid them, don't watch cable news.
Lastly, It's unfortunate that so much bad data has been circulated about health care reform since everyone agrees that things must change. However, it's hard for the average American and politician alike to make an informed choice on the issue when accurate data is scarce.