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> a society with no control over (certain) information is one which is more vulnerable to control by bad actors. Centralized (state and/or corporate) control o
by rphlx 9y ago
> a society with no control over (certain) information is one which is more vulnerable to control by bad actors.
Centralized (state and/or corporate) control over information is itself an incredible asset to bad actors. Goebbels et al..
- shevy 9y agoVery true. But it gets even worse when you look at lobbyists paid by corporations. In the long run, Google will have to be split up into smaller pieces. You can't control this evil - and greedy -corporation otherwise anymore.
- mistermann 9y agoUnless Google can strike a mutually beneficial deal with the government. I don't think either operate in the best interests of the public.
- type0 9y agoYou'll get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwoadnWKs40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwoadnWKs40
- crdoconnor 9y agoPre-hutton BBC was good and Al Jazeera still is. It's not all Goebbels, especially when that state media has a charter that asserts its independence and commitment to objective reporting.
- rphlx 9y agoOne major problem with state-owned centralized media, in my opinion, is that objectivity usually degrades into propaganda whenever that's seriously requested by a senior government official, e.g. in times of war. IIRC the BBC was not always forthcoming about setbacks during the early parts of WWII, for example.
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoIt's the same with corporate media as well: ex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue#MSNBC_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue#MSNBC_program
- rphlx 9y agoI think there is a significant difference in extent. There are certainly many cases where US corp media lays obediently in the government's lap, but there are also some crucial cases where it was majorly non-compliant - TV coverage of the Vietnam war being possibly the most significant & influential example.
- wu-ikkyu 9y ago>there are also some crucial cases where it was majorly non-compliant - TV coverage of the Vietnam war being possibly the most significant & influential example. Indeed, though you'll notice that ever since the gory coverage of Vietnam the mainstream media censors war to a much higher degree because they learned TV audiences find the true images of war to be unbearable. Public support for war drops sharply when they see the mangled dead bodies of their own soldiers while they eat their TV dinners. "Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America - not on the battlefields of Vietnam." -Marshall McLuhan
- crdoconnor 9y agoNon-state owned media is hardly better in this regard.