Most of America believes what it sees on mainstream TV. I call that a controlled population. Remember, the TV networks chose to bar Dennis Kucinich from a whole series of Democratic Party debates. I don't have to tell you why they did that. That's a media system that is controlled by a few people from the top down, and it doesn't respond to public opinion or need in any honest way, it shapes and manufactures public opinion in a very calculated manner by deciding beforehand what the public will see and hear.

Are there people who see through it? Yes. Are there enough of them yet to change the way things are? Well, I don't think so, but maybe their numbers are increasing. I hope so.

I know you see through it, Ron, but do a majority of Americans see through it? They sure never did when I was living there, and I have seen little to indicate that that has changed much at all.

The media focuses on the extremes at either end of the spectrum, as you have noted, for 2 reasons. 1. It increases their ratings. 2. It assists in dividing and conquering a confused public by directing their anger uselessly against each other instead of at the ruling system that has them all in the palm of its hand. As the public becomes more divided against one another the laws can be tightened, and security measures can be increased, and police power can be bolstered. More prisons can be built. More people can be incarcerated. This benefits those who wish to extend authoritarian rule in a society.

Disunity in the ranks of any public is of great benefit to the few controllers at the top.

"You can always get one half of the poor to kill the other half for you." - spoken by the character Boss Tweed (in the movie "Gangs of New York")

So, yes, you can count on the media to keep harping on extremes and ratcheting up the tension level. It's good business, after all.