Creating cable television and social media bubbles where one’s political views are affirmed has proven popular and profitable. Angrily declaring one’s opponents imbeciles enriches pundits, corporate executives and stockholders. The result for many Americans, though, is confusion, cynicism and division.

I’m not suggesting a false equivalence between Fox and MSNBC, or the far right and left — which James Fallows has rightly criticized in The Atlantic. Hard-line Republicans egged on by Fox are responsible for the government shutdown. They have taken the government hostage in their obsession to end Obamacare. Yet if one watches only Fox, radical steps are needed to prevent the cataclysm that conservatives believe Obamacare represents.

There are some reasons for hope. The emergence of non-profit news outlets and the web’s breadth of information and instant accountability are promising. But simplistic, reassuring narratives are more profitable than dispassionate descriptions of complex public policy problems. For a collapsing, digital-age news industry desperate for income, partisanship is an economic lifeline.

That was evident Wednesday night. Flipping between Fox and MSNBC for several hours — something I suggest you try — produced two completely different realities.

On MSNBC, Matthews and his guests called House Republicans “wacko-birds,” “birthers,” and “crazy, angry.” They said opponents of Obamacare were driven by bigotry and selfishness.

“There is very little sense on the Hill that they’re there for something bigger than themselves,” said Susan Milligan, a columnist for U.S. News and World Report.

At 8 p.m. on Fox, Bill O’Reilly upped the rhetorical ante. Two days after its introduction, Obamacare was “not ready for primetime,” according to O’Reilly, riven with so many problems “it was pretty much impossible to list them all,” and likely to spawn delays in medical care and fraud.

Over on MSNBC, Chris Hayes opened his 8 p.m. show with a screen logo declaring far-right opponents of the law “frauds.”

Back on Fox, Sean Hannity called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a “sick, twisted old man” who engaged in “casualty cruelty.” Hannity also mocked the 18 House Republicans who had said they no longer supported a shutdown as a way to stop Obamacare. According to Hannity, they were willing to “bend down at the altar of Reid and Obama.”

Finally, over on MSNBC, 9 p.m. host Steve Kornacki, substituting for Rachel Maddow, said that Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was following the example of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and using “stunts” to make himself a hero to the Republican base.

“Newt Gingrich, more than anybody else, may be responsible for where we are, what we are now seeing playing out inside the halls of Congress,” Kornacki said. “He wrote the script and Ted Cruz is following it to a t.”