What President Obama gets wrong about the media echo chamber

[Commentary] President Barack Obama has had strong words for the press over the past few weeks, most recently at a dinner with journalists. He's blamed the news media for political polarization, arguing that journalists don't enough to challenge Americans' preconceptions. When people tune into the news, the President says, they can choose media outlets that report the facts with a bias that favors their point of view. He's also argued that journalists don't do enough to question the often outrageous claims that politicians make on the record, suggesting obliquely that the press should subject GOP front-runner Donald Trump to more scrutiny. "Some people are just watching Fox News; some people are just reading the New York Times," President Obama said in January. "They almost occupy two different realities in terms of how they see the world." Yet recent research on how Americans watch, read and listen to the news contradicts this conventional wisdom that people on each side are trapped in virtual echo chambers in which they never hear different political views. Yes, people spend more time with outlets that convey a point of view that conforms to their own. There is no evidence, however, that people avoid information that contradicts their worldview. In their daily lives, Americans hear plenty from the other side.