9 ms·

Nobody Seems to Have an Answer for Propaganda Posing as Local News

46 points by _jvqe 4y ago

egberts1 4y ago
That's why the local newscaster still remains an important component of modern free press; this provides for identifiable aspect of credibility with regard to news transmittals. But, what do I know outside of Civic 101.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  What does that matter when the "local newscaster" is just reading a template provided by Sinclair broadcasting in a "must run" segment?
  - Larrikin 4y ago
    It's possible to fix one problem without fixing all the problems at once. That is an important but separate issue that needs to be fixed.
    - egberts1 4y ago
      I think this solution mine (which is the addressing on this singularity of locally organic aspect of the printed ("web") free press that I have identified) is the nexus that should be our starting point, given the onslaught of "pink slime".
  - egberts1 4y ago
    It is identifiable as locally recognizable, as oppose to the "pink slime" creeping into our neighborhood. Content is still going to be beholden to the master of bias; but we would then know whose bias is beholden to. Good ol' days would have two, three or more competing newspapers of which different folks can buy from: now it is just one newspaper (or none) which is THE problem (of a different kind than what OP is asserting about). Thankfully, we usually have at least two local broadcast newscasters (of different affiliates) in nearly all local communities.
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      It's not about abstract "bias," it's about your local newscaster not being local at all, but one of the brands of a giant national (or multinational) company.
      - egberts1 4y ago
        That's the definition of "pink slime", pretending to be a local newscaster when it is not. This is a separate definition from ones in national broadcast news and one who pretend to be a national broadcast newscaster, which is a mute point when it comes to freedom of press. Back to "pink slime", it is critically important to organically raise local newscasters as a local business.
- kevin_b_er 4y ago
  That was true until Sinclair bought up a bunch of local stations and started requiring identical stories. This was part of Sinclair's dislike of social media doing moderation of malicious and hateful content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE
tenebrisalietum 4y ago
I think we won't real have progress until the non-digital generation dies out. The older part of the population vulnerable to this garbage is the also the part of the population with the most idle time, the most likeliness to vote, and the most money, so it will be the most propagandized to.
- yucky 4y ago
  It's weird because it feels like the younger generation is devoid of original thought, and completely lacking in logic. Everything is run on emotion. As a proud member of Gen X, we are definitely the only sane ones :)
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    The reason they're dumb is because Gen Xers (like us) censored and overprotected their childhoods, and made them dumb. We've doomed them to having to educate themselves on the internet, because we failed to give them accurate knowledge and reasoning skills. Unfortunately, the US government (who saved a few generations from their dumb parents) ceased to care about education after the Soviet Union fell, leading to privatization and homeschooling. For being miseducated, propagandized, and impoverished, I think they turned out relatively well.
    - yucky 4y ago
      Homeschooling is tiny fraction of a percent. Meanwhile, standardized test scores in public schools are down across the board and have been trending down for years.
pessimizer 4y ago
I maybe check my mail monthly because I handle everything electronically. A week ago I did, and it was crammed to the gills with at least half a dozen of these stupid papers. To confirm the OP, I live in Illinois. edit: oh, also confirming that they were extremely right-wing.
skee8383 4y ago
I got an answer for it. Turn it all off.
tehwebguy 4y ago
They are correct to have a tighter focus on the right wing propaganda but the truth is nearly every local news outlet, regardless of ownership or alleged leanings acts as propaganda for police basically any chance they get. Obviously "submarine" is an overused term on this board but check out basically any crime / police related articles from your local "real" news site and see how many of them only source police in virtually every article. Sometimes I wonder if there is even a human at the news org tasked with rewriting the police press releases or if they are just touched up via an AI writing service.
DontchaKnowit 4y ago
Thought this would be talking about a different phenomena I've noticed - Chinese propaganda articles that are hosted on clones of actual local news websites but with a slight modification in the domain name.
kelseyfrog 4y ago
Why would anyone have a problem with it? They are simply agents in the free market of ideas. Markets can't function without a diversity of competing suppliers and propagandists supply what's demanded. Likewise, if truth is important to enough people, more truthful news outlets will spring up.
- thatguy0900 4y ago
  This doesn't really make sense, a person cannot be an expert in very many things, and cannot tell the difference between propoganda and the truth. You are no different, the only people who could catogorize the truthful outlets from the propoganda outlets on more than a handful of subjects are the ones directing the propoganda.
  - kelseyfrog 4y ago
    If that's true, then all markets are broken. I would have to be an expert on food, cars, housing, clothing, education, &c to not be bamboozled.
    - thatguy0900 4y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law Those markets used to be broken. They are often still broken until the law catches up. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal Turns out if a market isnt well regulated scammers will absolutely run amok. Look at any posting about Amazon here and how much of the comments are just saying it is just fraudulent garbage. When a expert actually does look at something, that's often what they find https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10508494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10508494 The big difference is that it's not illegal to spout whatever propoganda you want, and more than that, it sometimes even has government backing and I can't refute you. If you sell me a fucked up car it's obvious to me after a while, if you lie to me about what's going on in say, Ukraine politics, how can I know you are lying to me? I've barely even heard of the place before the war happened. I just have to take your word on why it's important we need to send these guys billions of aid as opposed to all the other countries currently being invaded.

46 points by _jvqe 4y ago

That's why the local newscaster still remains an important component of modern free press; this provides for identifiable aspect of credibility with regard to news transmittals. But, what do I know outside of Civic 101.

mrguyorama 4y ago
What does that matter when the "local newscaster" is just reading a template provided by Sinclair broadcasting in a "must run" segment?
- Larrikin 4y ago
  It's possible to fix one problem without fixing all the problems at once. That is an important but separate issue that needs to be fixed.
  - egberts1 4y ago
    I think this solution mine (which is the addressing on this singularity of locally organic aspect of the printed ("web") free press that I have identified) is the nexus that should be our starting point, given the onslaught of "pink slime".
- egberts1 4y ago
  It is identifiable as locally recognizable, as oppose to the "pink slime" creeping into our neighborhood. Content is still going to be beholden to the master of bias; but we would then know whose bias is beholden to. Good ol' days would have two, three or more competing newspapers of which different folks can buy from: now it is just one newspaper (or none) which is THE problem (of a different kind than what OP is asserting about). Thankfully, we usually have at least two local broadcast newscasters (of different affiliates) in nearly all local communities.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    It's not about abstract "bias," it's about your local newscaster not being local at all, but one of the brands of a giant national (or multinational) company.
    - egberts1 4y ago
      That's the definition of "pink slime", pretending to be a local newscaster when it is not. This is a separate definition from ones in national broadcast news and one who pretend to be a national broadcast newscaster, which is a mute point when it comes to freedom of press. Back to "pink slime", it is critically important to organically raise local newscasters as a local business.
kevin_b_er 4y ago
That was true until Sinclair bought up a bunch of local stations and started requiring identical stories. This was part of Sinclair's dislike of social media doing moderation of malicious and hateful content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE

tenebrisalietum 4y ago

I think we won't real have progress until the non-digital generation dies out. The older part of the population vulnerable to this garbage is the also the part of the population with the most idle time, the most likeliness to vote, and the most money, so it will be the most propagandized to.

yucky 4y ago
It's weird because it feels like the younger generation is devoid of original thought, and completely lacking in logic. Everything is run on emotion. As a proud member of Gen X, we are definitely the only sane ones :)
- pessimizer 4y ago
  The reason they're dumb is because Gen Xers (like us) censored and overprotected their childhoods, and made them dumb. We've doomed them to having to educate themselves on the internet, because we failed to give them accurate knowledge and reasoning skills. Unfortunately, the US government (who saved a few generations from their dumb parents) ceased to care about education after the Soviet Union fell, leading to privatization and homeschooling. For being miseducated, propagandized, and impoverished, I think they turned out relatively well.
  - yucky 4y ago
    Homeschooling is tiny fraction of a percent. Meanwhile, standardized test scores in public schools are down across the board and have been trending down for years.

pessimizer 4y ago

I maybe check my mail monthly because I handle everything electronically. A week ago I did, and it was crammed to the gills with at least half a dozen of these stupid papers. To confirm the OP, I live in Illinois. edit: oh, also confirming that they were extremely right-wing.

skee8383 4y ago

I got an answer for it. Turn it all off.

tehwebguy 4y ago

They are correct to have a tighter focus on the right wing propaganda but the truth is nearly every local news outlet, regardless of ownership or alleged leanings acts as propaganda for police basically any chance they get. Obviously "submarine" is an overused term on this board but check out basically any crime / police related articles from your local "real" news site and see how many of them only source police in virtually every article. Sometimes I wonder if there is even a human at the news org tasked with rewriting the police press releases or if they are just touched up via an AI writing service.

DontchaKnowit 4y ago

Thought this would be talking about a different phenomena I've noticed - Chinese propaganda articles that are hosted on clones of actual local news websites but with a slight modification in the domain name.

kelseyfrog 4y ago

Why would anyone have a problem with it? They are simply agents in the free market of ideas. Markets can't function without a diversity of competing suppliers and propagandists supply what's demanded. Likewise, if truth is important to enough people, more truthful news outlets will spring up.

thatguy0900 4y ago
This doesn't really make sense, a person cannot be an expert in very many things, and cannot tell the difference between propoganda and the truth. You are no different, the only people who could catogorize the truthful outlets from the propoganda outlets on more than a handful of subjects are the ones directing the propoganda.
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  If that's true, then all markets are broken. I would have to be an expert on food, cars, housing, clothing, education, &c to not be bamboozled.
  - thatguy0900 4y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law Those markets used to be broken. They are often still broken until the law catches up. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal Turns out if a market isnt well regulated scammers will absolutely run amok. Look at any posting about Amazon here and how much of the comments are just saying it is just fraudulent garbage. When a expert actually does look at something, that's often what they find https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10508494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10508494 The big difference is that it's not illegal to spout whatever propoganda you want, and more than that, it sometimes even has government backing and I can't refute you. If you sell me a fucked up car it's obvious to me after a while, if you lie to me about what's going on in say, Ukraine politics, how can I know you are lying to me? I've barely even heard of the place before the war happened. I just have to take your word on why it's important we need to send these guys billions of aid as opposed to all the other countries currently being invaded.