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> Just because a narrative is biased and skewed doesn't disqualify it from being better than other narratives. It makes it far worse. Very few people take Brei

> Just because a narrative is biased and skewed doesn't disqualify it from being better than other narratives. It makes it far worse. Very few people take Breitbart seriously but many will take CNN or NYT seriously. The mainstream media is far too powerful to ignore when they push a narrative. Smaller outfits on the far left/right don't pose the same existential threat to our society.

Barrin92 9y ago
The consumption habits of people proof this statement wrong. Tabloid newspapers have higher circulation than anything else. In some countries a majority of people receive their news from facebook or other social media feeds. Television channels like fox news draw more viewers than cspan. The mainstream media is not that mainstream at all. The principle of 'the big lie' still works very well.
- HappyKamper 9y ago
  So it is up to big brother to save the day, right? Because, according to you, humans are incapable of being rational or well informed, they must therefore be taken care of as if we were toddlers? Where does it end and how do you choose whose freedom you will allow?
- malvosenior 9y ago
  When your audience is affluent and powerful, you don't need as many to have an oversized impact. It's not like NYT has a small readership. They are massive and their influence is far greater than that of The Enquirer.
  - behindmyscreen 9y ago
    Affluent and powerful people are typically people that are smart enough to parse out any mild bias and ignore it. The Gomer and Cletus crowds of the world that vote are the people that are the risk for the lies of the fake news sources because they vote and are a very large group.
  - Barrin92 9y ago
    In a democracy the affluent and powerful have as many votes as anybody else. If the NYT only manages to reach a upper class clientele who already agree with the NYT they are not very powerful at all. (as we have seen during the last election, if the NYT et al were that powerful we would have seen a different outcome) Tabloids and fake news rags on the other hand have been reaching far into the middle class, the non-voters and so forth, in other words they're generating an audience among people who we would have considered to be immune to demagoguery.
khawkins 9y ago
>Very few people take Breitbart seriously but many will take CNN or NYT seriously. Many people take Breitbart seriously and do not take CNN seriously. Alexa ranks it at 52 for US traffic. Many people take CNN seriously and do not take Breitbart seriously. Its site is ranked 25.

Barrin92 9y ago

The consumption habits of people proof this statement wrong. Tabloid newspapers have higher circulation than anything else. In some countries a majority of people receive their news from facebook or other social media feeds. Television channels like fox news draw more viewers than cspan. The mainstream media is not that mainstream at all. The principle of 'the big lie' still works very well.

HappyKamper 9y ago
So it is up to big brother to save the day, right? Because, according to you, humans are incapable of being rational or well informed, they must therefore be taken care of as if we were toddlers? Where does it end and how do you choose whose freedom you will allow?
malvosenior 9y ago
When your audience is affluent and powerful, you don't need as many to have an oversized impact. It's not like NYT has a small readership. They are massive and their influence is far greater than that of The Enquirer.
- behindmyscreen 9y ago
  Affluent and powerful people are typically people that are smart enough to parse out any mild bias and ignore it. The Gomer and Cletus crowds of the world that vote are the people that are the risk for the lies of the fake news sources because they vote and are a very large group.
- Barrin92 9y ago
  In a democracy the affluent and powerful have as many votes as anybody else. If the NYT only manages to reach a upper class clientele who already agree with the NYT they are not very powerful at all. (as we have seen during the last election, if the NYT et al were that powerful we would have seen a different outcome) Tabloids and fake news rags on the other hand have been reaching far into the middle class, the non-voters and so forth, in other words they're generating an audience among people who we would have considered to be immune to demagoguery.

khawkins 9y ago

>Very few people take Breitbart seriously but many will take CNN or NYT seriously. Many people take Breitbart seriously and do not take CNN seriously. Alexa ranks it at 52 for US traffic. Many people take CNN seriously and do not take Breitbart seriously. Its site is ranked 25.