4 ms·

I agree, but also don't be too quick to discount the "MSM". Sure, they're big organisations that are open to bribery and corruption like any other; but the peop

I agree, but also don't be too quick to discount the "MSM". Sure, they're big organisations that are open to bribery and corruption like any other; but the people they employ are generally decent journalists trying to do their jobs as well as anyone else.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
I don't disagree fully, though I have a special loathing for American "MSM"; as a Canadian I can't watch e.g. CNN without my gag reflex kicking in. The presentation style, glibness, and superficiality is ridiculous. From the outside, it's just Fox News for smug US liberals instead of crazy radical conservatives.
- maxehmookau 3y ago
  Yeah, I guess my perspective is very British. The BBC is complained about fairly equally from all sides, so I count them as fairly unbiased most of the time. You're right though, American cable news on all sides is unpleasant to watch.
  - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
    American MSM / cable news media has the same coverage style as their sports media. In many ways their political culture is just team sports, NFL, but transposed into another domestic sphere. It's weird though how Americans you'd think would know better don't always see this. Was hanging out at a friend's house in the US, he tossed on CNN and I made comments to the effect of what garbage it was, and he got really defensive; as if the only alternative to that ... was Fox news and Trumpy Republicans. I think many US "liberals" just feel continually under siege, and deep in a culture war, and everything is just absolutely binary "my side" vs "your side." But it's imho a trap. E.g. the same friend just can't comprehend that we have a 3rd (social democratic, left wing) party here in Canada. To him it's just "splitting the vote" and we should all just be voting Trudeau to stop the evil Conservative horde. Because that's the corner US politics has been backed into. Completely tribal, team-sports, football metaphor pasted over everything. (And it keeps getting exported up here.)

cmrdporcupine 3y ago

I don't disagree fully, though I have a special loathing for American "MSM"; as a Canadian I can't watch e.g. CNN without my gag reflex kicking in. The presentation style, glibness, and superficiality is ridiculous. From the outside, it's just Fox News for smug US liberals instead of crazy radical conservatives.

maxehmookau 3y ago
Yeah, I guess my perspective is very British. The BBC is complained about fairly equally from all sides, so I count them as fairly unbiased most of the time. You're right though, American cable news on all sides is unpleasant to watch.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  American MSM / cable news media has the same coverage style as their sports media. In many ways their political culture is just team sports, NFL, but transposed into another domestic sphere. It's weird though how Americans you'd think would know better don't always see this. Was hanging out at a friend's house in the US, he tossed on CNN and I made comments to the effect of what garbage it was, and he got really defensive; as if the only alternative to that ... was Fox news and Trumpy Republicans. I think many US "liberals" just feel continually under siege, and deep in a culture war, and everything is just absolutely binary "my side" vs "your side." But it's imho a trap. E.g. the same friend just can't comprehend that we have a 3rd (social democratic, left wing) party here in Canada. To him it's just "splitting the vote" and we should all just be voting Trudeau to stop the evil Conservative horde. Because that's the corner US politics has been backed into. Completely tribal, team-sports, football metaphor pasted over everything. (And it keeps getting exported up here.)