Obama urges media to rebuild social trust; ‘the country is divided’

Obama said that not just politicians, even the voters are divided now as the priority is to “beat the other guy” rather than discussing issues, facts and policies, and the current media environment adds to that greatly.

Former US president Barack Obama, in an interview to CBS News on Sunday, said that they have to work with the media and the tech companies to find ways to inform the public better about the issues and bolster the standards to ensure that they can separate truth from fiction.

Former president Barack Obama addresses voters in Atlanta, Georgia, US.(Reuters)

“I do think the current media environment adds to that greatly. This democracy doesn’t work if we don’t have an informed citizenry. This democracy doesn’t work if we don’t have responsible elected officials at other levels who are willing to call the president when he’s not doing something right, call him on it”, Obama said.

“It’s not just the politicians now. The voters are divided”

Obama said that not just politicians, even the voters are divided now as the priority is to “beat the other guy” rather than discussing issues, facts and policies, and the current media environment adds to that greatly.

He added, “It’s not just the politicians now. The voters are divided. It has now become a contest where issues, facts, policies per se don’t matter as much as identity and wanting to beat the other guy. You know, that’s taken priority.

In the run up to the 2020 US presidential election, the political divide between the supporters of President Donald Trump and his democratic challenger Biden got deeper with political analysts predicting that almost half of the US was likely to feel betrayed by the result. Trump and Biden voters expressed strikingly different views on different issues.

“We need to make sure our kids have a safe playground to play in.’ And at that level, I don’t think people have that kind of -- visceral hatred. And that’s where we have to start in terms of rebuilding the social trust, we need for democracy to work,” the 59 year old Obama said.

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