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A perceived decline of quality in Newsweek certainly intersected with my grandparents' turn towards Fox News in the late '90s. But there's a lot more to it. I s

A perceived decline of quality in Newsweek certainly intersected with my grandparents' turn towards Fox News in the late '90s. But there's a lot more to it. I spent years on the tail end of that shift trying to convince them that NPR was relatively even-handed only for NPR to doom that effort right when it started to take hold with goofy scandals and a stream of new programming that embraced being perspective-centric. (Inability to report with an objective and even hand about guns didn't help NPR, either. They say news stories about things you're familiar with always seem atrocious. I've definitely witnessed it with tech stories in mainstream news. But it tends to be extra atrocious with guns, I guess because a lot of folks find the topic rather visceral.) I also have found that otherwise relatively interesting writing in all kinds of sources has become less family shareable over the years as edginess and expletives have penetrated more and more quarters. I wish people would write more opinion pieces to be shareable with grandma instead of raising hackles for the sake of it.

clairity 5y ago
i personally have no dog in the gun debate (i don't like guns but generally support 2nd amendment rights), but this story is propaganda for npr, which has taken a steep nosedive in quality and objectivity over the past few years. they want to claim the moral high ground but have no leg to stand on. i can't even listen to more than 5 minutes of npr before having to shut it off in disgust. their coverage of recent geopolitical events is decidedly tribal and partisan: for instance, making russians and the chinese out to be cartoon villians for easy dunking on. that's not to say that either regime is saintly, but it's done to pander to the basest tribal instincts only, nuance and discernment be damned. it's truly awful.
- Glyptodon 5y ago
  In my view there are some situations with guns laws that should be seen by most anyone as crazy in an apolitical way. For example, section 922r import rules are silly to begin with (basically certain imported weapons must have 10 or fewer foreign manufactured parts, said parts coming from a specific list, or are illegal), but the list is extra bad because it includes magazines (rather like labeling the cargo as a component of a cargo plane). So if you have a foreign made "non-sporting" gun, if the magazines were not one of the 922r compliance parts, using a non-US manufactured magazine in the gun makes you some sort of criminal. Imagine if importing a Toyota car not only required a certain specific number of US made parts, but that list included tires, so if it was delivered with US made tires, putting tires manufactured in Europe on your car would make you a criminal (unless you replaced other foreign made parts with US made parts, so maybe you need to replace the engine to legally use foreign made tires)... You'd probably think it's a law almost designed to make Toyota owners commit crimes by doing normal car maintenance. I don't think you need to be a 2nd Amendment debate person or like guns to think various of the rules and laws around guns are at best questionable.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
Fox News in the 90s was fairly balanced. Hannity and Colmes was decent- one was liberal the other conservative. I think that was part of the plan. Once they had the viewers established they pulled further and further right and people stayed out of habit.
- listenallyall 5y ago
  TV news is still a profit-oriented enterprise, not a public service. The ultimate end goal is to attract eyeballs (and therefore advertisers), not to broadcast a specific point of view. Fox successfully and accurately identified an underserved market, and filled the void. Unfortunately, middle-of-the-road doesn't attract large audiences night after night. MSNBC has done exact same thing as Fox, just on the other end of the spectrum. CNN is an utter failure because it has no identity, its viewpoint is the same as MSNBC's but is inferior in just about every way.
- dTal 5y ago
  It's quite a stretch to call Fox News "balanced" because of Hannity and Colmes, which was a) their only attempt at "balance" and b) a notoriously lopsided show, designed entirely as a platform for Hannity to spar with someone. They've dropped the pretext now - the show is now just called "Hannity". Fox News has never not been scummy.
- cudgy 5y ago
  Colmes was a punching bag for Hannity if I recall.

clairity 5y ago

i personally have no dog in the gun debate (i don't like guns but generally support 2nd amendment rights), but this story is propaganda for npr, which has taken a steep nosedive in quality and objectivity over the past few years. they want to claim the moral high ground but have no leg to stand on. i can't even listen to more than 5 minutes of npr before having to shut it off in disgust. their coverage of recent geopolitical events is decidedly tribal and partisan: for instance, making russians and the chinese out to be cartoon villians for easy dunking on. that's not to say that either regime is saintly, but it's done to pander to the basest tribal instincts only, nuance and discernment be damned. it's truly awful.

Glyptodon 5y ago
In my view there are some situations with guns laws that should be seen by most anyone as crazy in an apolitical way. For example, section 922r import rules are silly to begin with (basically certain imported weapons must have 10 or fewer foreign manufactured parts, said parts coming from a specific list, or are illegal), but the list is extra bad because it includes magazines (rather like labeling the cargo as a component of a cargo plane). So if you have a foreign made "non-sporting" gun, if the magazines were not one of the 922r compliance parts, using a non-US manufactured magazine in the gun makes you some sort of criminal. Imagine if importing a Toyota car not only required a certain specific number of US made parts, but that list included tires, so if it was delivered with US made tires, putting tires manufactured in Europe on your car would make you a criminal (unless you replaced other foreign made parts with US made parts, so maybe you need to replace the engine to legally use foreign made tires)... You'd probably think it's a law almost designed to make Toyota owners commit crimes by doing normal car maintenance. I don't think you need to be a 2nd Amendment debate person or like guns to think various of the rules and laws around guns are at best questionable.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

Fox News in the 90s was fairly balanced. Hannity and Colmes was decent- one was liberal the other conservative. I think that was part of the plan. Once they had the viewers established they pulled further and further right and people stayed out of habit.

listenallyall 5y ago
TV news is still a profit-oriented enterprise, not a public service. The ultimate end goal is to attract eyeballs (and therefore advertisers), not to broadcast a specific point of view. Fox successfully and accurately identified an underserved market, and filled the void. Unfortunately, middle-of-the-road doesn't attract large audiences night after night. MSNBC has done exact same thing as Fox, just on the other end of the spectrum. CNN is an utter failure because it has no identity, its viewpoint is the same as MSNBC's but is inferior in just about every way.
dTal 5y ago
It's quite a stretch to call Fox News "balanced" because of Hannity and Colmes, which was a) their only attempt at "balance" and b) a notoriously lopsided show, designed entirely as a platform for Hannity to spar with someone. They've dropped the pretext now - the show is now just called "Hannity". Fox News has never not been scummy.
cudgy 5y ago
Colmes was a punching bag for Hannity if I recall.