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Much like the US today is a better country than it ever was, "the media" today is better than its critics say. People have a fantasy of how it supposedly was, h
by matt4077 10y ago
Much like the US today is a better country than it ever was, "the media" today is better than its critics say. People have a fantasy of how it supposedly was, how objectivity works (or doesn't) in journalism, and how much we still rely on a small handful of traditional publications.
Journalism has always had, and always will, a part to play in shaping public opinion. "Simply disseminating information" is something a phone book may do. Publishing a newspaper starts being subjective when you decide on what to write about.
The ecosystem of hanger-ons garnishing news with left-wing (Mother Jones, HuffPost) or right-wing (breitbart, FOX) slant adds exactly nothing but vitriol.
Wikileaks has shown exactly nothing except that in a million internal e-mails you're bound to find a few embarrassing ones. And that the American right has absolutely no problem that they won an election with the proven and admitted help of the Russian government.
- drewrv 10y agoWhat annoys me is how people treat ideology as the only type of bias. People will accuse a news source of being biased in favor of the left or right and that's it. The reality is that ideology is not even the most interesting or influential type of bias. For example, news organizations heavily favor sensationalism over stories that are important but boring. News organizations will pander, reporting stories that their audience will enjoy rather than what will educate them. There's a "pre existing narrative" bias, for example Al Gore was a dorky know it all so of course he claimed to invent the internet, regardless of reality. Maybe the New York Times or CNN slightly favors the right or the left, but give them a story that is sensational and fits the narrative and they won't shut up about it no matter which ideology it harms.