3 ms·
Neutrality is implausible. What matters is honesty. Sometimes I will find a political article written by somebody whose views I disagree with but the author att
by simias 6y ago
Neutrality is implausible. What matters is honesty. Sometimes I will find a political article written by somebody whose views I disagree with but the author attempts to be thorough, doesn't reason backward from their conclusion and tries to account for their own biases and limitations. It's frankly heart warming what that happens.
Most of the news that seems to gain popularity on social networks is not that though. It's not really news, it's pandering and it's reinforced by the echo-chamber nature of said social networks.
I'm lucky enough to be able to read several languages and I found that the best way to find consistently decent news coverage is simply to look for it on the outside. See how the Russians or Brasilians report the Capitol riots. See what the Ukrainians have to say about the British elections. Of course these news outlets are not without their own biases, but at least they tend to be less emotionally involved and don't have a horse in the race, which in my experience leads to more factual reports.
For instance while most European news outlets will lean anti-Trump, they are unlikely to consciously or unconsciously silence or downplay pro-Trump or anti-Democratic news simply because they don't really have any direct influence on American politics. Meanwhile a journalist at CNN or Fox News is in a different position, because their reporting will be de-facto politicized and could have direct consequences one way or an other.
- l9k 6y agoI think you underestimate the power of American politics and its influence over other countries. Many politicians are publicly supporting Trump despite sharing none of his values and none of his political stances just because he is branded as a successful right-wing politician. Most people don't know how skewed the political window is in the US anyway. Even moderate right-wing politician from a European perspective want to be associated with him because he represents the right. Because of that, news reporters in Europe tend to be gentle with Trump and the Republican party, glossing over their most egregious acts, to not appear biased, despite the small number of people actually supporting the same policies locally. And they still need to report on the USA because of their importance in the world. Also at play, the incomprehension in translating American problems to other countries'. In other events, the BLM movements was imported to other countries with little knowledge of the US systemic problems and used/criticized in different ways. This is how American politics can drag the political discussion over the world and impact the political spectrum everywhere.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoOn the other hand, how many of the left-leaning politicians in the USA have criticized Twitter/Facebook banning Trump or Apple/Google/AWS banning Parler ? Here's an example from Europe : https://www.worldstockmarket.net/twitter-when-francois-ruffin-flies-to-the-rescue-of-donald-trump/ https://www.worldstockmarket.net/twitter-when-francois-ruffi...
- nemothekid 6y agoAny European criticizing AWS for banning Parler is only paying lip service; Parler couldn’t exist as European company as Europe has far stricter hate speech laws. In any case far left leaning activists have always expressed that the mega caps have too much power; but they were called communists until it started affected people on the right.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoAFAIK he's not criticizing the issue with Parler, as you would have seen if you actually had read my link. I have just widened the net in the hope of catching some dissidents to the "party line".
- nemothekid 6y agoI did read link, to ensure he was western European, rather than eastern. My assertion remains the same - under French or German laws Trump would have been booted, and with clear precedent.
- PoignardAzur 6y agoHe reacted to similar criticisms: https://twitter.com/Francois_Ruffin/status/1348557574384316417 https://twitter.com/Francois_Ruffin/status/13485575743843164... > "Freedom of speech isn't without limits", I know, but it falls to the people, the tribunals and the officials to decide those limits. Not private companies. He's not saying these are good people, he's saying the arbitrary nature of these decisions, and the fact that they're being made by unaccountable corporations, is dangerous.