The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers

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If you go by the really lame definition of a civil war, we might be in it. I've interviewed a lot of people who have been embedded with right wing militias in Michigan and they say don't sleep on it. Like these are dangerous people and the Proud Boys are dangerous people. But of course, we're being pumped out a narrative that these people are dangerous,. That there are so many of them, that even the people who right now don't have 12 AR-15s and are planning to kidnap the governor of your upper Midwestern state... Even if you're not of that crew, you know them and you don’t think badly about them. All the incentives are

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Besides the need to attract attention, what are some other drivers behind the news media's tendency to "catastrophize the normal"? To what extent does paltering take place on the politically left and right ends of the new media spectrum? Should journalists try to be as objective and unbiased as possible, or should they strive to make a difference in the world by highlighting particular issues that are important to them? Is the US on the verge of a civil war? Are prophecies of civil war self-fulfilling? Is it (and should it be) okay to reference certain taboo phrases by saying them explicitly? To what extent do journalists pull their punches because they fear angering the wrong crowd?

Mike Pesca is host of The Gist, the longest running daily news podcast in history, consistently ranked in Apple's Top 20 Daily News charts. During his 10 years as a correspondent for NPR, Mike guest hosted All Things Considered and the news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. His work has been featured on This American Life, Radiolab, and Planet Money. He has frequently appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and The PBS Newshour, and written for The Washington Post, The Guardian, GQ, Slate, and Baseball Prospectus. Listen to Mike on The Gist, or follow him on Twitter at @pescami.

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