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Transcript: America’s Big Political Problem Isn’t Polarization

newrepublic.com · 23h · first reportShare

This is a lightly edited transcript of the September 11 episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon . You can watch the video here or by following this show on YouTube or Substack . Perry Bacon: Welcome to another episode of Right Now , The New Republic ’s twice weekly video podcast about politics and policy. I’m Perry Bacon, the host. I have a great guest. Shannon McGregor is a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Media. So Shannon, welcome. Shannon McGregor: Hi. Thanks for having me. Bacon: We’re going to talk about two ideas. You write a lot about politics and media and communication and the intersection of those concepts. We’re going to talk about two kind of ideas that I think are at the core of—we have a lot of episodes here about media and higher education and politics, and I think there are two ideas that are at the core of those fields. They’re polarization and neutrality. They’re two concepts that have become these defining concept