Paul Fanlund, editor of The Capital Times:

I was in airports and out of touch Monday before settling in front of my home computer to explore coverage of the Oklahoma tornado devastation from that afternoon.

Like most of you, I suspect, I was horrified by early accounts of dead and unaccounted-for children at two flattened elementary schools, a dread much like that distinctive despair I felt after last December’s school massacre in Newtown, Conn. …

My go-to source for online national and international news, The New York Times, provided thorough and sensitive coverage, but then I began exploring the reader comments there and on other sites.

Predictably, I suppose, many comments had zoomed right past the first phase of the news-tragedy checklist: counting and recovering bodies, caring for victims, assessing scope of damage, expressing sympathies and offering help.

No, many were already on to the second phase, and this time it was the left-leaning crowd asking questions: I wonder what those global-warming deniers will say this time? I wonder what those small-government Oklahoma Republicans who griped about federal spending after Hurricanes Katrina (gulf coast) and Sandy (the “liberal” northeast) will say about federal aid now?

Here in Madison, former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz was already online Tuesday morning with an Isthmus column headlined “Don’t blame God for the Moore tornado” discussing climate change.

This, I conclude, is what it has come to.

On almost any news event — local, national or international — we react for what seems a millisecond as Americans (or Wisconsinites or Madisonians). Then we split into our two massive left and right ideological tribes to determine how the news fits our master narrative and suggests blame for the other side.

In fact, it’s impossible to recall a major news story during the past year in which we all simply reacted as Americans for very long.

Perhaps 9/11 was the last time we reacted in unison. Americans rallied around President Bush after deaths of about 3,000 Americans even though reports suggested Bush had been slow to take seriously threats from Osama Bin Laden.

It’s as if there is no news, just red-state news and blue-state news, conservative Fox news or liberal MSNBC. While much of this journalistic reality is not new, what does seem different is how the demarcation occurs almost instantly.

Not that long ago there was, more or less, an agreed-upon set of facts around news events. Opinions would flow some time later. Even longer ago, there were trusted national voices such as Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley delivering what seemed largely undisputed facts. …

Here in Madison and Wisconsin generally, this penchant for instantly shifting news for viewing through partisan lenses has been exacerbated by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who seems oddly proud that nearly half of his constituents disagree with him on almost every issue. He then leverages the fact that he survived a recall effort as a badge of honor to enhance his national right-wing credibility.

Republican Tommy Thompson, who seemed to relish impressive approval ratings among Democrats while governor, was a product of his times, and Walker is a product of his.

Within the fortress of liberal Madison, the rush-to-judgments are slower and elbows predictably less sharp; our disagreements are more about narrower cultural divides and leadership styles. But, we must remember, we mostly belong to the same tribe.

Oh, I imagine I will be called hypocritical for this column, given that The Capital Times has a century-old reputation for progressive editorial viewpoints. Moreover, our central focus is the progressive enclave of Madison, so some of that criticism is to be expected. …

For decades, journalists have worked to craft stories that answer questions about who, what, when, where, why and how.

Sadly, in my view, today’s news consumer seems most interested in jumping — even before bodies are counted — to “who can I blame?”