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The behavior we see due to the private ownership of media and news publishers betrays the colossal failure it is for the public and nations at large to have our

The behavior we see due to the private ownership of media and news publishers betrays the colossal failure it is for the public and nations at large to have our society's self-reporting undermined by profit motives. News and media need to be treated as protected speech, with more formalization and more regulation. Leaving the governance of our society's self reporting to greedy Capitalists is a clear and active recipe for doublespeak and fascism.

CWuestefeld 4y ago
On the contrary, letting the government determine what comes through the media is the recipe for fascism. As evidence, consider that the first thing that any authoritarian regime does is to take control of the media. The first test you've got to do for any proposal like yours is to consider what the impact of it will be when your political opponents are at the reins. Are you comfortable with Donald Trump (or really, anyone of his faction) having this power?
- bsenftner 4y ago
  Who said "government control"? I said more regulation. Of course letting any one power source control society's self conversation is bad. We need to accept the concept that regulation exists because the alternative is worse, and that includes regulation of how the news is delivered and the rights of those collecting information for news reporting. As it stands, society expects "good journalists" to give their lives to report the truth the public needs to understand how far our lack of regulation has allowed things to become.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    > Who said "government control"? I said more regulation. You do realize government control and regulation are synonymous, right?
    - bsenftner 4y ago
      Yes, they are, and in practice regulations exist not because some evil bureaucrat wants to oppress free enterprise; regulations exist because one or more parties abused a freedom to the degree their behavior's impacts harmed others enough for laws to be written.
wutbrodo 4y ago
The profit motive does a poor job of handling the externalities journalism should be addressing. But govt control of the media landscape to the degree you're talking about can easily hamstring the important adversarial function journalism has vis-a-vis govt. It's a very hard problem, and there are no obvious or pat solutions.
- bsenftner 4y ago
  Not government control, more regulation in the form of transparencies towards what gets reported and what does not, protections for investigative news journalists and whistleblowers, and no more masquerading entertainment as news journalism. Just as cigarettes have warnings about lung health, Fox News should have warnings about "not journalism, entertainment and the political opinion of Robert Murdoch".

CWuestefeld 4y ago

On the contrary, letting the government determine what comes through the media is the recipe for fascism. As evidence, consider that the first thing that any authoritarian regime does is to take control of the media. The first test you've got to do for any proposal like yours is to consider what the impact of it will be when your political opponents are at the reins. Are you comfortable with Donald Trump (or really, anyone of his faction) having this power?

bsenftner 4y ago
Who said "government control"? I said more regulation. Of course letting any one power source control society's self conversation is bad. We need to accept the concept that regulation exists because the alternative is worse, and that includes regulation of how the news is delivered and the rights of those collecting information for news reporting. As it stands, society expects "good journalists" to give their lives to report the truth the public needs to understand how far our lack of regulation has allowed things to become.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > Who said "government control"? I said more regulation. You do realize government control and regulation are synonymous, right?
  - bsenftner 4y ago
    Yes, they are, and in practice regulations exist not because some evil bureaucrat wants to oppress free enterprise; regulations exist because one or more parties abused a freedom to the degree their behavior's impacts harmed others enough for laws to be written.

wutbrodo 4y ago

The profit motive does a poor job of handling the externalities journalism should be addressing. But govt control of the media landscape to the degree you're talking about can easily hamstring the important adversarial function journalism has vis-a-vis govt. It's a very hard problem, and there are no obvious or pat solutions.

bsenftner 4y ago
Not government control, more regulation in the form of transparencies towards what gets reported and what does not, protections for investigative news journalists and whistleblowers, and no more masquerading entertainment as news journalism. Just as cigarettes have warnings about lung health, Fox News should have warnings about "not journalism, entertainment and the political opinion of Robert Murdoch".