5 ms·
I think one of the root causes of this is the increasingly partisan behavior of the "mainstream" media. People are sick of having their opinions dictated to the
by Nacdor 6y ago
I think one of the root causes of this is the increasingly partisan behavior of the "mainstream" media. People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them, they're sick of media outlets that all push the same narratives 24/7 (Russiagate, anyone?), and they're desperately searching for any outlet that will objectively report "all the news that's fit to print" (as the NY Times likes to say).
In the past year we saw Andrew Sullivan leave New York Magazine[1], Bari Weiss leave The New York Times[2], Matthew Yglesias leave Vox (which he founded) [3], and Glenn Greenwald leave The Intercept (which he founded) [4]. All of them had one thing in common that Greenwald summed up well: "The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles."
The mainstream media has created an information vacuum, and the spread of disinformation is a direct result of that.
[1] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-...
[2] https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter
[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-and-medias-groupthink-problem/617102/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-a...
[4] https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-int...
- fokinsean 6y ago> People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them I'm fairly sure my family's opinions come straight from the media.
- dtho 6y agoThat's the problem he's pointing out. The media doesn't attempt to portray reality objectively or truthfully whatsoever. They have gotten quite good at influencing our opinions without rationalizing those opinions.
- redisman 6y agoSubstack is a great development. Mostly news consumers seem to be drifting to much worse and even more partisan news "sources" if they leave the mainstream media.
- eranima 6y agoImagine thinking Greenwald isn't trying to push a narrative.
- specialist 6y agoOne of those things is not like the other.
- bananabreakfast 6y agoWhat in the hell is Russiagate? If you're referring to Russia actively interfering with American elections through a pointed and state sponsored disinformation campaign that continues to this day... then that's not a narrative? That's a thing that's happening that matters and is one of the principle sources of bad actors behind this very article
- thehappypm 6y agoRussiagate is basically the idea that the Trump campaign was working closely with Russia to "cheat" the 2016 election. The Mueller report showed.. Russia was messing around for sure, but the Trump campaign wasn't really involved in any meaningful way.
- jellicle 6y agoOn the contrary, the Mueller report showed that the Trump campaign was working quite closely with Russian actors in a wide variety of ways, and at the very top of the campaign. https://www.justsecurity.org/63838/guide-to-the-mueller-reports-findings-on-collusion/ https://www.justsecurity.org/63838/guide-to-the-mueller-repo...
- thehappypm 6y agoI mean, the New York Times headline itself said "Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy".
- _jal 6y agoThat is incorrect. The Mueller report clearly showed a great deal of coordination, and could not reach accusations because of limits placed on the investigation. A Mueller investigation with different parameters would have reached very different conclusions.
- dtho 6y agoIs it fair to assassinate someone's character by suggesting to millions of people that this someone is a criminal when they have not been found guilty in the court of law?
- kibwen 6y agoI feel like anyone railing against "mainstream" media hasn't been paying attention for the past decade. Facebook, Reddit, etc. each command more daily eyeballs than any cable news network, and yet somehow they're not mainstream? Social networks are the overwhelming bulk of the media apparatus these days.
- Nacdor 6y agoFacebook and Reddit are not publishers of news so that comparison makes no sense.
- kibwen 6y agoThat's a distinction without consequence. Your comment is about media companies "dictating" things; social media just trades the editorial desk for Facebook's opaque newsfeed algorithm, or the faceless Reddit hivemind, or Twitter's endless sea of bots. All that matters is reach, and social media has traditional media outnumbered and outgunned.
- dahfizz 6y agoThis is a naive view. "Mainstream media" isn't just cable news, they get are all on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. They often have a large presence on these platforms and the directly influence the conversation around stories.
- atoav 6y agoI think it is more complex than that. With social media and the internet people found a virtual friend that always approves their world view. And should something happen that doesn't fit the world view a cozy way out is just google search around the corner. And of course: the world is confusing and complex. Stuff that was previously something only crazy people would believe turned out to be true (think Snowden). Given such a world isn't it easier to just form some idea in thin air and worship it instead of admitting that you have no clue what is going on? This is what is happening here. And social media is the perfect echo chamber to avoid the cognitive dissonance one would get when the rubber meets the road in terms of an reality check. If there are millions others that share your world view how wrong can you be? Media isn't innocent in that sense, politics isn't innocent, social media companies and marketing people aren't innocent. They are all complicit in this. But saying something among the lines of "people go to apeshit conspiracy nonsense sites because they don't trust the media" would be a bit far fetched as well. I think the main reason people do it is because A) they can and B) it feels better than not doing it. The classical media is certainly part of that feeling, but certainly not the biggest part of it.
- youareostriches 6y agoIs this really a new phenomenon? Fox News has been peddling blatantly partisan propaganda ever since the Reagan administration tore down the fairness doctrine in the late 80s.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jonnycomputer 6y agoGreenwald complained that his editors wouldn't let him publish objectively false stories. No sympathy.
- KittenInABox 6y agoI don't know if Bari Weiss can be part of this. Bari Weiss had apparently been slamming her co workers in public during a company-wide meeting. If I knew my co worker was publicly insulting me on twitter while we were in a meeting together I would also call for my co worker to no longer be my co worker for contributing to a hostile workplace.
- Nacdor 6y agoWas that before or after this: > My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter
- KittenInABox 6y agoI have no idea and the only proof is her claim there; we have proof she was publicly shittalking her co workers on her twitter, which she doesn't own up to in her resignation letter.
- friendlybus 6y agoI don't think we can reasonably expect company people to out their own misbehaviour and resolve this conflict. We are never going to know what happened.