A generation ago, before cable news channels and internet news sources,
most people got their news from the same small collection of sources:
three major TV networks and a hometown newspaper or two, Brown said.
People gathered around their televisions for the assassination of a
president, a walk on the moon, and other major events.

"It was an age of mass media news, one audience sharing a common
experience," Brown said. "For the most part, the mass audience
experienced such things together."

Brown, featured speaker for the university's Fall Family Open House
Saturday, Oct. 27, contrasted that world with the one we live in today,
in which Americans can restrict themselves to cable news stations and
internet news sources they find most congenial.

"For the most part, we now live in the world of niches," Brown said.

He acknowledged that the availability of more choices was a good thing,
but also noted that the change seems to be part of a far more divided and
bitter political atmosphere.

"If we only connect with like-minded people, how do we hear other views?"
Brown asked. "It's hard not to feel it has some relationship to the
divisions around us."

Brown said he has interviewed departing members of Congress from both
parties who have told him they no longer want to be a part of an
institution where compromise has become impossible and political parties
are intent on scoring points rather than addressing national crises.

Brown cited polling data that seems to show fear and bitterness
transcending political and ideological boundaries. Pollsters have found
that both Democrats and Republicans fear the loss of what they have and
see their values as under siege.

"Each side sees itself as under siege," Brown said. "Each side sees
itself as losing ground. They can't both be right. Or can they?"

Brown also observed that most people probably are moderate rather than
left-wing or right-wing, and are less than obsessed with political issues
and the public sector. Most people devote their energies to their jobs,
their families, their churches, their hobbies and their sports.

He called for some way of enabling people to have civil discussions of
public issues.

"We need better places and spaces to connect with one another," Brown
said. "I simply ask that all of us ... find ways to expand our universe a
bit. ... We must seek out today's public square and public voices."

He offered no specific ideas to that end, but did suggest that public
broadcasting has a role to play. Brown also observed that all things
"public," including public schools, public parks, public universities and
public broadcasting, seem to be under some degree of attack.

In his own work reporting for the PBS News Hour, Brown tries to give some
attention to the arts and humanities. He believes those things are just
as important to the human race as economic issues.

To make that point, he quoted from an interview with Israeli novelist
David Grossman, whom Brown said tries to keep a focus on basic human
problems in a place where it is all to easy to be overwhelmed by
political issues and security problems.

"We are now in danger of becoming like a suit of armor, but without the
knight inside," Brown recalled Grossman saying.

--
"Re-electing Obama is like backing The Titanic up and hitting the iceberg
a second time."