Let's talk about your (media) diet! 🍔

Hamburgers are delicious. But...

You are what you eat.

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about that aphorism when I was younger. I ate whatever — usually fast food and cheese (I LOVE cheese) if I am being honest! — and never thought about its effect on my weight or overall health.

Then, um, I got older. And I started to notice I weighed more than I used to. That I wasn’t as flexible. I got tired more easily. I couldn’t do some of the things I used to be able to do when I was 25.

At which point, I realized that what I put into my body had an outsized impact on how I felt. (I know, I know. Many of you realized this much earlier than I did. What can I say? I am a slow learner!)

Your body is like a car. Put crappy fuel in, get crappy results out. It’s a pretty simple equation.

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With the turn of a new year and Donald Trump back in the White House, I have been thinking a lot about consumption — what we put into our bodies, yes, but also the content we digest on a daily basis.

Because now more than ever I think you have to be mindful and purposeful in what you watch, read and listen to. There’s just SO much ALL of the time. It can overwhelm you (or me!).

This has been top of mind for much of the last week — ever since a reader sent me her plan to deal with the next four years: Stick her head in the sand.

Here’s what she said:

I am planning on not paying attention to news for the next 4 years except for my local news. Ignorance is bliss and the nonsense that will transpire after Jan 20 will be ridiculous and scary. I'm still shocked that there were voters out there that just don't care how badly he behaves so I am done. My husband and I left the Republican party and are now registered as Independents.

What this amounts to — to extend the food metaphor — is making a decision to simply stop eating. I don’t like the foods that are popular right now and so I am going to just stop eating entirely — and just hope things work out!

I am no doctor but I feel pretty confident in predicting that if you simply stop eating a) you are going to barely survive and b) it’s not going to make the popular foods any less popular.

So, to me, that is not a viable consumption plan.

I have talked to plenty of other people who have a different approach to their media diet: They are only going to eat, er, read things that affirm their beliefs.

This is an especially prevalent line of thinking on the left, which continues to grapple with the fact that Trump won — again. They are so disappointed in their fellow Americans that they have decided to write them off entirely. They think the media, corporate America and all the rest are capitulating to a would-be dictator — and all they want to consume are people who affirm that basic belief.

It’s candidly giving off Seymour Skinner vibes:

In food terms, I equate this to eating a hamburger every day for lunch and dinner. Look, hamburgers are delicious. I love them. I get why you’d want one every day.

And, in the near-term, you might not see any major downsides to eating a ton of hamburgers. You would be satiated. And happy. Because, as I have already covered, hamburgers are delicious.

But, if hamburgers were the whole of your diet? Well, your cholesterol would like a word. As would your heart.

The truth is that the only way to really ensure you are healthy is to eat across the food spectrum. I hate vegetables. But my wife forces me to eat them because they are good for you. Same thing with fish. And, no, I can’t eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for dessert anymore.

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t EVER have a hamburger! If you love them, you absolutely shouldn’t rob yourself of the joy of ever eating them! What it means, however, is that you can’t just eat them. Because if you do, there will be negative consequences.

The same goes for your media diet. What I am here to suggest is that you need a balanced media diet — even if you hate broccoli Trump or kale Democrats.

This isn’t easy. It’s FAR easier to consume only content you agree with. And, in the political space, there are lots of people willing to provide you with just that content. This fan service journalism might make you feel good — like a hamburger — but it’s not going help you understand what is really going on in this country.

I remind people ALL the time that Donald Trump — with ALL of his warts, flaws and failings — won 77 million+ votes in November. He won the popular vote. He won all 7 battleground states. His party controls the Senate, the House and the majority of governorships (and state legislatures) in the country.

To assume — as many of the anti Trump sites would have you believe — that all of those people are racist misogynists who are too stupid to know what is good for them is not the way we move this country forward. (Sidebar: It is, however, a very good business model for people creating that sort of content.)

So what does a healthy media diet look like? Well, if a healthy diet is fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and protein, I would suggest a healthy media diet is a fairly even mix of left, right and center news and analysis.

Again, I get that this is hard. It’s WAY easier to have your priors confirmed. To never have to intellectually engage with thoughts and analysis that disagree with your own.

But, that’s how we got to the bad place — this is the bad place to be clear — where we are now. Doubling down at this point seems, at best, counterproductive.

Now to be clear: I am not suggesting that if you hate Trump you need to listen to Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast every day (although it is a pretty entertaining listen!). Or if you love Trump that you need to get all your news and analysis from the Meidas Touch.

That’s probably not going to happen. Like, Tom Brady might be able to eat avocado ice cream and insist he likes it but most of us aren’t going to be doing that.

That shouldn’t stop you from seeking out news and commentary from the left, right and center though. There are ALL sorts of tastes out there. One or two will suit your content palate.

I would humbly suggest that I can occupy that “center” column for you. I spent twenty-plus years in mainstream media covering [swings arms around wildly] all of this. I call balls and strikes — no matter what uniform the player at the plate is wearing. I promise you I will be transparent about my conclusions and, if they turn out to be wrong, I will admit my error and work to avoid it happening again.

But, you don’t need to read JUST me (or me at all!) to get the center view. Others who I think are doing a good job of occupying that space:

Mark Halperin

,

Gabe Fleisher

,

Jessica Yellin

,

ettingermentum

,

Damon Linker

,

Ross Barkan

.

I’ll even give you a few suggestions of people writing from the left and right who I think can help you fill out your media diet. (This is a sampling, not a comprehensive list.)

The Left/Anti Trump:

Jonathan V. Last

,

Simon Rosenberg

,

Dan Pfeiffer

,

Judd Legum

,

Van Jones

The Right:

Sean Spicer

,

Christopher F. Rufo

, Jim Geraghty,

Mary Katharine Ham

,

Matt Shapiro's Marginally Compelling

.

None of these might be exactly what you want to consume! I would suggest you give them — or at least some of them — a chance. (When my kids were little, someone told me that you need to give them a food 7 times before they decide if they like it or not!)

Or, if you don’t like how any of them taste, find some other content food you do like! But don’t give up on finding content from the left, right and center.

Now is a moment where we ALL need to reassess how we have been consuming content. And ask whether we can do better.

I think — and hope — we can. The long-term health of our democratic experiment depends on it.

Thanks for reading and take good care.

— Chris