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As an independent voter, I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines, but I just can't stomach it. All I want is facts. edit: We can th

As an independent voter, I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines, but I just can't stomach it. All I want is facts. edit: We can thank Ronald Reagan for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

nkozyra 5y ago
"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth." The media (en masse) can be factual and yet instill a large bias. Stories with uneven sourcing, presentation and priority of different news stories, biased accompanying photographs, weirdly scaled graphs ... there are millions of ways to use facts selectively and tell a story that is factual but not truthful. Skepticism is probably the most important part of media consumption. What am I reading? Where does it come from? Does the headline try to beg the question? Are there an equal number of sources on both sides? Do they have equal gravity? Where can I confirm these facts? Do they confirm or reject my pre-existing beliefs? And so on ... It's a lot of work! That's why most people have poor media literacy. That's why we read something on social media at under 256 chars and believe it.
lettergram 5y ago
Conservatives at the time felt it was a first amendment rights violation. Further, they claim that this policy was leading to two talk show hosts, both leftists, but one claimed to be conservative. That’s at least what was claimed. I don’t really know how you overcome that.
whimsicalism 5y ago
Facts are difficult, because even if you have facts, you might only have some subset of the facts that skews you in a certain way. Definitely best to read from a lot of different slants.
rubyist5eva 5y ago
> On August 22, 2011, the FCC voted to remove the rule that implemented the Fairness Doctrine, along with more than 80 other rules and regulations, from the Federal Register following an executive order by President Obama directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books" to eliminate unnecessary regulations. Seems like it hasn't been a thing for a decade, so I'm not so sure.
wolverine876 5y ago
> I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines There is a lot you can find that isn't in propaganda machines. One essential piece of propaganda is to say that everything is propaganda, like a liar saying everyone lies. The very good news is that, while nothing will meet a standard of perfection, there are excellent news sources - you have more access to quality news than anyone in history, thanks to the professionalization and expansion of journalism and to, of course, the Internet. The first trick: Skip all opinion pieces. They are all BS from every side, IMHO. Despite what those propagandists and opinion pieces say, the NY Times, Washington Post, and similar publications do provide quality news (don't read their opinion sections either).
- simiones 5y ago
  > Despite what those propagandists and opinion pieces say, the NY Times, Washington Post, and similar publications do provide quality news (don't read their opinion sections either). They do, but only on certain subjects they approve of. There are often major world or local events that are never covered in these outlets. Just to give some recent examples, the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in 2020 across India, and not 1 mainstream outlet in the US and UK covered it at all. Similarly, the miners' protests in NY were not covered in mainstream media. I do agree that on the news they do cover, you can get decent facts from the papers you cite.
  - wolverine876 5y ago
    > the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in 2020 across India, and not 1 mainstream outlet in the US and UK covered it at all. Similarly, the miners' protests in NY were not covered in mainstream media. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=india+worker+protests+site%3Anytimes.com https://duckduckgo.com/?q=india+worker+protests+site%3Anytim... I didn't see the New York miner protests in the NYT in a quick search, but I lack search terms and time. Do you mean the protests in support of Alabama miners? I'm not saying that they don't miss stories and can't improve, a lot, but I think attacking journalism is trendy and normalized, and much of it is BS.

nkozyra 5y ago

"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth." The media (en masse) can be factual and yet instill a large bias. Stories with uneven sourcing, presentation and priority of different news stories, biased accompanying photographs, weirdly scaled graphs ... there are millions of ways to use facts selectively and tell a story that is factual but not truthful. Skepticism is probably the most important part of media consumption. What am I reading? Where does it come from? Does the headline try to beg the question? Are there an equal number of sources on both sides? Do they have equal gravity? Where can I confirm these facts? Do they confirm or reject my pre-existing beliefs? And so on ... It's a lot of work! That's why most people have poor media literacy. That's why we read something on social media at under 256 chars and believe it.

lettergram 5y ago

Conservatives at the time felt it was a first amendment rights violation. Further, they claim that this policy was leading to two talk show hosts, both leftists, but one claimed to be conservative. That’s at least what was claimed. I don’t really know how you overcome that.

whimsicalism 5y ago

Facts are difficult, because even if you have facts, you might only have some subset of the facts that skews you in a certain way. Definitely best to read from a lot of different slants.

rubyist5eva 5y ago

> On August 22, 2011, the FCC voted to remove the rule that implemented the Fairness Doctrine, along with more than 80 other rules and regulations, from the Federal Register following an executive order by President Obama directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books" to eliminate unnecessary regulations. Seems like it hasn't been a thing for a decade, so I'm not so sure.

wolverine876 5y ago

> I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines There is a lot you can find that isn't in propaganda machines. One essential piece of propaganda is to say that everything is propaganda, like a liar saying everyone lies. The very good news is that, while nothing will meet a standard of perfection, there are excellent news sources - you have more access to quality news than anyone in history, thanks to the professionalization and expansion of journalism and to, of course, the Internet. The first trick: Skip all opinion pieces. They are all BS from every side, IMHO. Despite what those propagandists and opinion pieces say, the NY Times, Washington Post, and similar publications do provide quality news (don't read their opinion sections either).

simiones 5y ago
> Despite what those propagandists and opinion pieces say, the NY Times, Washington Post, and similar publications do provide quality news (don't read their opinion sections either). They do, but only on certain subjects they approve of. There are often major world or local events that are never covered in these outlets. Just to give some recent examples, the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in 2020 across India, and not 1 mainstream outlet in the US and UK covered it at all. Similarly, the miners' protests in NY were not covered in mainstream media. I do agree that on the news they do cover, you can get decent facts from the papers you cite.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  > the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in 2020 across India, and not 1 mainstream outlet in the US and UK covered it at all. Similarly, the miners' protests in NY were not covered in mainstream media. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=india+worker+protests+site%3Anytimes.com https://duckduckgo.com/?q=india+worker+protests+site%3Anytim... I didn't see the New York miner protests in the NYT in a quick search, but I lack search terms and time. Do you mean the protests in support of Alabama miners? I'm not saying that they don't miss stories and can't improve, a lot, but I think attacking journalism is trendy and normalized, and much of it is BS.