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In your original (upthread) argument that "unbiased news is not a possibility", are you stating that as a fundamental consequence of the news' lossy compression

by ethbr0 4y ago

In your original (upthread) argument that "unbiased news is not a possibility", are you stating that as a fundamental consequence of the news' lossy compression of {all facts} into a smaller product... or something else? It's unclear. As for averaging out, yes, the vector model was what I was using internally. Disclosure: I'm US-based, so our politics are traditionally bipolar as a result of our election system (in contrast to Europe et al.). I would be surprised if vectors don't cancel often though, because think what we're really talking about in a capitalist information space: popular perspectives that are profitably marketable. What is the easiest way to find an audience? Do what your competitors are not. So on the whole, high revenue and production cost media (tv, web) in a capitalist information space will converge into bipolar pairs on any given issue, in order to maximize market share. In lower cost media or operations, it will more likely be a random scattering of vectors.

ryanbrunner 4y ago
> Disclosure: I'm US-based, so our politics are traditionally bipolar as a result of our election system (in contrast to Europe et al.). There's a whole lot of bias that's "baked in" with US politics / media. There's broad consensus on neoliberal capitalism, personal freedoms vs collectivism, common ground on opposing states like Russia and China. On a few wedge issues you will average out to a common ground, but ultimately you're not eliminating bias, you're just eliminating a relatively small bias between left-wing and right-wing US and replacing it with an "overall US" bias.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  From mass market sources, true. Probably because they're aiming towards the common American, who generally has similar feelings. Ergo, they're that + whichever politically-polarized biases. As for whether averaging that out is useful...? I'd be happy to have news from a "overall US" bias, without the right/left political spin.

by ethbr0 4y ago

ryanbrunner 4y ago

> Disclosure: I'm US-based, so our politics are traditionally bipolar as a result of our election system (in contrast to Europe et al.). There's a whole lot of bias that's "baked in" with US politics / media. There's broad consensus on neoliberal capitalism, personal freedoms vs collectivism, common ground on opposing states like Russia and China. On a few wedge issues you will average out to a common ground, but ultimately you're not eliminating bias, you're just eliminating a relatively small bias between left-wing and right-wing US and replacing it with an "overall US" bias.

ethbr0 4y ago
From mass market sources, true. Probably because they're aiming towards the common American, who generally has similar feelings. Ergo, they're that + whichever politically-polarized biases. As for whether averaging that out is useful...? I'd be happy to have news from a "overall US" bias, without the right/left political spin.