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As a European who tuned in to US News for the US election I thought that was crazy. I'd watch a few of the right media orgs to see what they were saying and th
by secfirstmd 6y ago
As a European who tuned in to US News for the US election I thought that was crazy.
I'd watch a few of the right media orgs to see what they were saying and then stay on CNN/MSNBC etc for most of it. It's mad how so much of it every hour was essentially people just regurgitating stuff to fill the time. I mean OK what's happening is important but if you can't fill the airtime why not shift to other news (as in everything else happening in the world - HK democracy leaders were arrested during that time and I don't remember any proper mention through days upon days).
Also the fake breaking news thing was stupid. The amount of times I'd turn up Wolf Blitzer or something because I would hear breaking news announcements in the background and thinking like you'd get at the BBC, Channel 4, RTE, France 24 Al Jazeera English, etc that something important was happening. Only to find breaking news was basically just random scheduled things or just regurgitation of what happens. Here Sky News is bad for playing things up but nowhere near as bad as any of them.
News on the right in the US is awful but the Left isn't much better unfortunately. What do people watch that's in the Centre and actual news rather than hyperbole? PBS?
- sneak 6y agoI tried to do that, but even MSNBC these days seems to have fallen to hyperpartisan agitprop. I check nyt and cnn (both with a large grain of salt) periodically (~1x per week, for 5-10 minutes?) but unfortunately neither of those are quite as reliable as one would hope.
- IgorPartola 6y agoReliable by what metric?
- sneak 6y agohttps://lawandcrime.com/awkward/torture-is-a-legal-term-why-does-the-new-york-times-refuse-to-acknowledge-it/ https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/torture-is-a-legal-term-why-...
- IgorPartola 6y agoMy favorite is lately CNN posts an article outlining what the new administration is planning on doing the next few days. Then when they do every part of it, they post a BREAKING NEWS article about that item. Like, I, a very causal reader of the news, knew it was going to happen. Who is it a surprise to?
- doomrobo 6y agoI think the answer is don't watch TV news if you can help it. If 100% of their revenue comes from ads, then their incentives are clear: keep you watching no matter what. The way I see it, written news at least has a wider range of options, and the subscription model means they have slightly less incentive to be so manipulative.
- secfirstmd 6y agoYep agree absolutely. I probably read 5-10 different global media a day normally online. I rarely watch TV news but it was sort of an experiment I guess. Wow some of the stuff on places like Newsmax made Fox look like The Guardian.
- bobthepanda 6y agoNewsmax and OAN are notorious for extremely slanted coverage. The Guardian has a slant, but nearly every news outlet will have some slant, either by coverage or through omission. But it's certainly a lot worse at Newsmax and OAN. EDIT: accidentally said "doesn't have"
- joshuahughes 6y agoThe Guardian doesn't have a slant? You might want to reconsider that... “the Guardian is seen as Britain’s most left-wing newspaper” https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2017/03/07/how-left-or-right-wing-are-uks-newspapers https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2017/0...
- bobthepanda 6y agoThat was actually a typo. Need to proofread before I post, apparently.
- secfirstmd 6y agoI love The Guardian, it's the closest to my views but it most it definitely has a slant. I don't mind that. It's news is newsy and it's commentary is openly left wingish.
- nowandlater 6y agoThe PBS News Hour is pretty solid, https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour The weekly videos from Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus on Bloggingheads Tv is pretty good too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeamuoYuBeRnRRbmq5CmjVg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeamuoYuBeRnRRbmq5CmjVg
- systematical 6y agoPBS news hour is a total of 6 hours per week (weekend shows are 30 minutes each). In those 6 hours, they cover more than any one of the 24 hour news networks. You're killing your mind watching 24 hour news networks, any of them.
- secfirstmd 6y agoThanks, yeh I think when I want US News I might look at those instead
- systematical 6y agoCatch live and past episodes on YouTube.
- heavyset_go 6y agoPBS stations also run local news programs, too. The ones that I've watched have always been great compared to most entertainment news programs.
- ficklepickle 6y agoFear makes things memorable, makes it hard to turn away. It's an evolutionary thing. If my mom calls me after she has been watching that shit, she sounds strung out on stimulants. Agitated, easily angered. She is normally a calm, fairly rational person. It's fear mongering and it exists because it is effective. If one gets caught up in it, it can be hard to take a step back and realize what is going on. One might hear rationalizations like "I have to stay informed" or "it is related to my work". Very similar behaviour to other addictions. I'm reminded of Tool lyrics: "Stare like a junkie Into the TV Stare like a zombie While the mother Holds her child Watches him die Hands to the sky crying Why, oh why? 'cause I need to watch things die From a distance Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies You all need it too, don't lie Why can't we just admit it?"
- nyolfen 6y agoreminded me of a post i saw earlier today: > Occasionally watching terrestrial/mainstream TV is equivalent to dipping your head back into the Cave, except, the shadows no longer make any sense, and yet everyone is entrapped by them. It's noisy, bright and hellish, you can't go back, you're in a different world now. once you can curate information feeds and investigate topics in depth on demand, not to mention adblocking, watching tv at all feels like a psychic assault
- hervature 6y agoReuters TV, 30 minutes every day, about 15-20 stories from around the globe but focusing on US. Read by a faceless person in an emotionless voice. That's what I do.
- ptero 6y agoIf you want news on a hot button topic it is usually better to watch it reported from far away. Less attachment leads to more information and less spin. Thus I would read US election news on European or Asian news sites, Brexit from Asia, etc. Just my 2c.
- Zelphyr 6y agoThey figured that little “Breaking News Alert!” out during 9/11, during which it was useful, but not at all after. I remember when Jason Priestly got into a car accident and they started throwing those alerts up. I realized then, “ok. Now they’ve jumped the shark” The only thing that amazes me at this point is that it is apparently still effective enough that they keep doing it.
- mensetmanusman 6y agoIf you’re smart you aren’t watching anything, especially since we know now that the more you watch the less in tune with reality you are.
- laurent92 6y agoTweets now often start with the 3 gyrophares then “breaking news urgent!!!” It is highly stressful. A good tip is to write “Breaking”, “Alert” and “Urgent” as spam words in the Twitter administration, so all tweets containing it will be hidden (or leave them, to ensure the Twitter experience is as bad as possible until you hate opening it).
- marshmallow_12 6y agoi like that they keep such a positive tone of voice. I get the impression they delight in sharing "bad" news since it invariably can be blamed on whichever party their outlet opposes.
- umanwizard 6y agoAll US TV “news” is intolerable garbage, but since the US is the global cultural hegemon, plenty of foreign media outlets cover our news. Almost any well-respected European broadcaster is a better source for US political news than any in the country. Newspapers are better than TV: the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are both much less sensational than any of the broadcasters.