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I'm still amazed at what they don't cover, and even suppress. The disparity of coverage between such as the largest antiwar protests in history, institutional

I'm still amazed at what they don't cover, and even suppress. The disparity of coverage between such as the largest antiwar protests in history, institutional imperial torture, the Occupy movement, or bank bailouts; compared to pop-stars or sports, is soul-rocking. Many otherwise smart people seem to accept this. They see it as normal, inevitable, and even victim blame saying that the media are "just giving people what they want". I disagree - polls all say people want healthcare, they want Bush and Cheney held for war crimes, they want clean water and a healthy planet. People want better education and childcare and mental health support. And those otherwise smart people agree with me, then go right back to turning on the bullshit; proudly voting for the lesser but still abominable evil.

handrous 5y ago
A great demonstration of the power of selecting which stories to cover is in Democracy Now versus nearly everything else. A DN listener hears about tons of labor action and protests that don't make it to other news sources (or, if they do at all, are waaaaay down in a tiny column near the end), so would have a very different idea about e.g. how active (and, perhaps, how useful) labor unions are, while someone with other sources may only hear about one or two major protests and one or two major strikes per year. DN also keeps up with coverage of protests in particular, where other outlets mention them only infrequently, such that a consumer of the latter might think they fizzle out or fail much sooner than they actually do. I dunno which is more "accurate" or "true", but it's a great example of how deciding what counts as noteworthy news is itself a very powerful editorial force. Where other outlets (even NPR and such) are setting aside news-coverage time to promote blockbuster films(!), the DN version of that would be promoting a documentary about indigenous-peoples issues or climate change or something. Totally different view of the world, just because of what the outlet deems worth covering.
AnimalMuppet 5y ago
> polls all say people want ... Bush and Cheney held for war crimes I'm calling BS on that one. You might be able to find a poll that says that, but no, polls don't all say that. You need to look at a wider selection of polls.
- mandmandam 5y ago
  I'll give you that one, I ought have phrased that better. Maybe something like, every poll outside of America and maybe one or two other countries that have benefited greatly from those wars since 2001. I would like to believe that if Americans were actually informed, by a media that worked on their behalf, they'd nearly universally want to prosecute Bush and Cheney as well. How sad, if I'm wrong on that.

handrous 5y ago

A great demonstration of the power of selecting which stories to cover is in Democracy Now versus nearly everything else. A DN listener hears about tons of labor action and protests that don't make it to other news sources (or, if they do at all, are waaaaay down in a tiny column near the end), so would have a very different idea about e.g. how active (and, perhaps, how useful) labor unions are, while someone with other sources may only hear about one or two major protests and one or two major strikes per year. DN also keeps up with coverage of protests in particular, where other outlets mention them only infrequently, such that a consumer of the latter might think they fizzle out or fail much sooner than they actually do. I dunno which is more "accurate" or "true", but it's a great example of how deciding what counts as noteworthy news is itself a very powerful editorial force. Where other outlets (even NPR and such) are setting aside news-coverage time to promote blockbuster films(!), the DN version of that would be promoting a documentary about indigenous-peoples issues or climate change or something. Totally different view of the world, just because of what the outlet deems worth covering.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago

> polls all say people want ... Bush and Cheney held for war crimes I'm calling BS on that one. You might be able to find a poll that says that, but no, polls don't all say that. You need to look at a wider selection of polls.

mandmandam 5y ago
I'll give you that one, I ought have phrased that better. Maybe something like, every poll outside of America and maybe one or two other countries that have benefited greatly from those wars since 2001. I would like to believe that if Americans were actually informed, by a media that worked on their behalf, they'd nearly universally want to prosecute Bush and Cheney as well. How sad, if I'm wrong on that.