The Parable of Two Friends Watching Cable News

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, what value is there in all the silly sniping against each other that the cable news channels are always doing?”

Josh spoke thus:

Two friends were watching a cable news channel.

“Why did you put this channel on?” the first friend asked, “This channel epitomizes everything I hate about this country.” 

“What do you hate about this channel?” the second friend asked.

“They’re so opinionated!” the first friend said.

“What’s wrong with being opinionated?” the second friend asked.
“They’re supposed to be a news channel!” the first friend said.

“Aren’t they allowed to have opinions about the news?” the second friend asked.

“Of course they can have opinions about the news,” the first friend said, “But they’re not supposed to say what their opinions are on a news program.”

“Isn’t a news program opinionated by its very nature?” the second friend asked, “The choice of what you’re going to cover as a being news story and what you’re not going to cover as not being a news story, isn’t that an opinion?”

“There’s a choice,” the first friend said, “But that’s not an opinion.”

“Why not?” the second friend asked.

“Look, they’re not supposed to be spouting off their opinions about the news,” the first friend said.

“Do you mean they’re not supposed to be honest about how they feel?” the second friend asked.

“I’m not asking them to lie,” the first friend said.

“Then what are you asking them to do?” the second friend asked, “Say nothing?”

“They should show the news and let me decide what my opinion is,” the first friend said.

“Are they telling you what your opinion is?” the second friend asked.

“They’re telling me I should think like they think,” the first friend said.

“And because you don’t think like they think,” the second friend asked, “Does that mean they shouldn’t tell you what they think?”

“They’re always trying to change the way people think about everything,” the first friend said.

“Isn’t that how the discussion works?” the second friend said, “Isn’t that the opening of a discourse?  Might it be worse if they said nothing?  Then you wouldn’t know what they were thinking.”

“I don’t want to know what they’re thinking,” the first friend said.

“So you don’t want a dialogue?” the second friend asked.

“It’s not a dialogue when only one person is talking,” the first friend said.

“And when you won’t join in the discourse, who’s fault is it only one person is talking?” the second friend asked.

“Are you on their side?” the first friend asked.

“Of course not,” the second friend said, “I disagree with almost everything they say.”

“Then how can you stand to listen to them?” the first friend asked.

“Because they’re loud and they’re opinionated and they tell you all the time everything that’s wrong with what you’re thinking,” the second friend said, “They’re everything I love about this country.”