Media critic President Obama is worried that ‘balkanized’ media is feeding partisanship

President Barack Obama recently referred to himself, only half­jokingly, as the “cool, early adapter president” regarding the use of digital technology to communicate with his supporters. But after having so successfully leveraged the Internet to circumvent the mainstream media, President Obama is not sounding so bullish of late about this era in politics he helped to spark.

In the waning days of his presidency, President Obama has expressed misgivings about the roiling tone of the 2016 campaign season, in which social media, partisan websites and saturation coverage have made it easier for candidates to disseminate their messages and distort their opponents’ views. And the Washington press corps has had a difficult time trying to sort it out. While all Presidents complain about news coverage, President Obama has taken his critiques further than most and has fretted that a “balkanized” media has contributed to the partisan rancor and political polarization that he acknowledges has worsened during his tenure. In President Obama’s view, although technology has made a wider variety of information more readily available, news consumers are now seeking out only what they “agree with already,” thereby reinforcing their partisan ideology. “Some people are just watching Fox News; some people are just reading the New York Times,” President Obama said. “They almost occupy two different realities in terms of how they see the world.”