Why Many People Refuse to Listen Reasonable Political Arguments [View all]

There are a lot of shows on TV that have pseudo-debates where one side only offers weak arguments and the other side always wins. This is actually a form of deception because people are not only convinced by the side that offers stronger arguments, they will not listen to strong arguments later because they feel like they've already made up their mind on the issue.

This technique has even been attributed to brain washing US POWs in the Korean war.

TV Shows with formats like Morning Joe where those around Joe only weakly debate his wildly inaccurate assertions, can actually train naive viewers into not listening to the truth when they finally hear it. Of course, it's not just Morning Joe that uses this format Hannity and Colmes also did this. CNN frequently has round-table discussions where only one point of view is strongly discussed and the business channels and other FOX shows follow this format as well.