In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, former President Obama said that he is “most worried about” that many Americans no longer believe the mainstream media narrative of events as “a common set of facts.”
Ex-NFL player Nate Burleson, who hosts a show on BET, interviewed the ex-president.
Obama said when he was growing up, there were “three channels,” everyone seemed to have a consistent understanding of what was genuine and what wasn’t.
Today, he is most concerned about the splintering of the media. If something happened in the past, everybody could say they may disagree on how to solve it, but at least there was agreement that there was an issue.
Obama added his displeasure by saying that some individuals in today’s society simply don’t accept the stories told by the media.
He said one of the goals of the Obama Foundation is how to return to that common conversation.
One subject that Obama would want to see Americans accept a “common set of facts” is gun regulation.
He argued that we might disagree on handling gun violence, but at the very least, we must accept that gun violence in the United States is fifteen times worse than in any other country.
He noted that when people say gun violence is a mental health problem, they seem to think there aren’t people with mental health problems in other countries with a gun violence issue.
Obama used Australia as an example of effective gun regulation, saying that after one mass shooting a half-century ago, the country banned all firearms.
He said this is how a society responds when children are at risk.
He said It’s time for a discussion now, but at least we can agree on the facts.
Obama’s most significant concern seems to be that a particular point of view, and its proponents, cannot control the narrative any longer because it’s harder now than when there were only three channels.
