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Keller @ Large: Interest In Facts And Truth Is Fading

BOSTON (CBS) - I did a story Wednesday evening on the egregious travel spending of federal Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former congressman who can't bring himself to travel on commercial flights for short-haul business trips but instead prefers private jets, squandering tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in the process.

I've done similar stories in the past about politicians of both parties, because the arrogance of power is a chronically-recurring outrage.

But even before the story aired Wednesday night, in response to promotion of the story on Twitter, a Trump supporter posted a Tweet saying he didn't want to hear about what Price did, but was only interested in scandals involving Democrats.

Listen, I understand partisanship. As a lifelong independent I don't much care for it, but I get it.

Some people like to choose up sides and see politics as a battle between good – their side – and evil – the other side. It's juvenile and ignorant, but not unfamiliar.

Still, to take it to the point where you don't even want to know about wasteful spending of your own tax dollars seems like it's taking partisanship too far.

But again, it's not surprising.

Interest in facts and truth has been fading for some time now.

Growing numbers of us seem to prefer life in a comfy phony world surrounded by spin and fantasy rather than grapple with the sometimes-challenging world of the real.

And the internet has made this trap oh-so-easy to fall into. You can build your favorites list or your Twitter feed around your biases, or let Facebook do it for you, no problem!

It's crazy, and it's not going to end well for our culture.

But as Walter Cronkite used to say – that's the way it is.

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