3 ms·
It's an issue of what stories get covered, how much they get covered and what angles are covered. Example: the China balloon. This really serves the interests
by jmyeet 4y ago
It's an issue of what stories get covered, how much they get covered and what angles are covered.
Example: the China balloon. This really serves the interests of the military-industrial complex (ie the "balloon gap" [1]) while playing into xenophobia.
As for East Palestine, you cannot overstate how much Tiktok altered the media narrative [2]. Train derailments actually happen all the time [3]. Norfolk Southern treated this as business as usual, including offering an insulting $25,000 to a town of 5,000 [4].
Mainstream media essentially had their hand forced by social media and circumstance into covering something they otherwise were ignoring.
[1]: https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-spy-balloon-defense-stocks-lockheed-51675448186 https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-spy-balloon-defense-s...
[2]: https://www.wired.com/story/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-tiktok/ https://www.wired.com/story/east-palestine-ohio-train-derail...
[3]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/often-trains-derail-more-think-112415958.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/often-trains-derail-more-thin...
[4]: https://www.yahoo.com/now/norfolk-southern-giving-25-000-200000640.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/norfolk-southern-giving-25-000-200...
- stevenhuang 4y agoConsider that the alternative explanation for what we're seeing is maybe the balloon thing was just more interesting. Mind you there is still the ongoing predicament with the 3 other unidentified objects that were presumably shot down that the military is strangely quiet on. FYI the reason many are interested is because of the UAP/UFO connection. If what we've actually tried to shoot down were ET craft, that would be kinda headline grabbing wouldn't you think? Train derailment happen all the time and for precisely this reason it may not garner as much genuine interest, irrespective how genuinely terrible a tragedy it was.
- washadjeffmad 4y agoThe repetition of "train derailments happen all the time" is like introducing Chernobyl by saying power plants have service disruptions all the time. Not the story. A train carrying a compound specifically recommended not to be transported by rail because of the hazard it poses as an environmental contaminant, the malfeasance and corruption that led to it being delisted and being on that train, and the subsequent political and legal maneuvering so as to minimize liability while mobilizing media to misdirect and trivialize the risk and endangerment to a town of people is the story.
- Natsu 4y agoI saw something recently responding in the same vein, but to other stories: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-media-very-rarely-lies https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-media-very-rarely-...
- wombatpm 4y agoTikTok altered the narrative. This is why the US Government keeps freaking out about TikTok. They don’t know who gets to pull the strings with the algorithm. Is it pro environmental, antigovernment, anticoporate? They don’t have to censor, just figure out what slant do they want to promote ever so gently. And right now the US government is freaking out because they don’t know when or why the Chinese government exercises its control