Filtering Out Value from Commentators' Garbage

I have been watching Fox News Channel some of late, but not with any delusional notion of getting anything resembling "fair and balanced" news coverage and analysis, despite that channel's ridiculous claim.  No, I am instead intent on receiving their conservative take on things in their full bias, and not necessarily because I am shifting in my political leanings.  For I am coming to an uncomfortable conclusion about how American society is becoming so polarized between those espousing leftist or rightist leanings that they tend to view the "other side" in terms of being enemies and evil.  I think of lot of this has to do with how people receive the often viciously critical commentary on TV and radio without understanding how to filter out the often legitimate message from the bullcrap that accompanies it.  For example, one day on Fox News Channel's late afternoon show The Five, panelist Greg Gutfeld expressed his view that the NSA's amassing of cell phone records was justified to protect us from terrorists.  Fine, I get it.  Then on a later show, though, the same Gutfeld included NSA on a long list of "scandals" he attributed to President Obama.  The substance was his earlier comment; the bullcrap was his latter. 

Laura Ingraham, an acerbic hard-right ideologue, was filling in for Bill O'Reilly another night when she made some reasonable arguments questioning the need for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.  But she had to then get personally derisive about Obama, spinning (on the "no-spin" show) extremely negatively on his ongoing European trip and how weak and irrelevant he appeared.  As a matter of fact, Ingraham couldn't use the name "Obama" in a sentence without saying something personally derogatory about the man.  Bullcrap.

These politically-slanted commentators are entitled, I suppose, to rant irrationally with personal disdain about whomever they want.  But doing this makes the task of filtering out the often very compelling, relevant points they are trying to make from the nonsense quite tedious and difficult at times.  Too bad. 

Both Greg Gutfeld and Laura Ingraham are obviously very intelligent people, with substantial talent in the way of expressing themselves and doing so with a flair for humor.  But both have also succumbed to this nasty tendency I see too often in the media to be personally derisive of those with views different from theirs while turning a blind eye to those flawed individuals (aren't we ALL flawed) with whom they share the same politics.  They can do better than this!

Still, I'm realistic about the state of things in the media.  It's up to ME to listen carefully to what is being said and to intelligently discern what is true and significant among what is largely verbal garbage...