Sean Hannity Has Gotten Rich Telling People What They Want to Hear

Trump fans whose media diet consists of virtually nothing but Trump-friendly media personalities like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, etc., are not as interested in expanding their horizons as much as they are in getting their biases confirmed.

The same is true for those who are left-leaning/liberal where virtually all they watch/read/listen to are liberal/leftist media personalities and outlets like Daily Kos, MSNBC, Mother Jones, The Nation., ThinkProgress, etc.

People in media get paid by building an audience and selling advertising; to do that they tell folks what they want to hear in order to tickle the pleasure centers of the brain that occurs when a person’s biases are confirmed.

Thomas Sowell said,

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

That’s the secret sauce in being a savvy media consumer: the realization that a great many folks in media care little for you, truth, what’s good for the country, etc., and care a lot about their ratings, their revenue, and their careers, and they’ll tell you whatever they think it is you want to hear not to help you, but to help them.