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I think this is an opportunity for traditional news networks to re-emerge as trusted news sources, by reporting only true and verified events. The days of goin

I think this is an opportunity for traditional news networks to re-emerge as trusted news sources, by reporting only true and verified events. The days of going on social media looking for news are over, when people can quickly spin up fake articles with photos of some famous landmark on fire or in ruins it becomes too frustrating to discern between fact and fiction.

thegrim33 3y ago
Two issues: 1) For many people, myself included, the mainstream media's reputation is so extremely damaged that anything short of a full, complete, tear down and from scratch rebuild of the entire industry won't in the slightest bit convince me to even give them a second chance. I've already moved on. 2) Even if a network literally posts only verifiable true facts, even if they have a panel of 1000 scientists and 1000 experts and 1000 people of different political persuasions that all agree with each other that the printed facts are "true", the organization can still easily lie and manipulate the population by simply selectively choosing which stories to cover and which to ignore, depending on which stories benefit their ideologies or hurt their rival ideologoies. Just "telling the truth" isn't remotely enough, they need to be both politically and ideologically neutral, they need to cover all events impartially and equally.
- topherclay 3y ago
  >they need to cover all events impartially and equally. A 100% accurate map of the territory is just the territory itself, and is useless as a map.
- unraveller 3y ago
  Changing anything would be admitting fault, and a self-professed authority never does that. Not when they can just latch on to other ways of virtue signalling as a kind of reputation repair substitute, much like what their advertising space does for other companies.
unshavedyak 3y ago
The problem is they're _also_ guilty of spinning "fake news". Yea, it's far more subtle, but "people left" for a reason. I think there is opportunity here, but i don't think it's back to the old ways. I imagine it would be some hybrid. A news source which aggressively documents and details sources. All opinions backed by a paper trail, etcetc. I'd pay for that. Or something.. but i don't know what that looks like. These days it feels like everything has an agenda, and nothing (at least that i've seen) backs up claims/opinions/supposed-facts with the data fueling the statement.
- titzer 3y ago
  It kind of doesn't matter when the median attention span is microseconds. What shames people is lies they told in the past coming back to bite them in the ass. But the public forgets the past, so when lies come back to bite people, they are just confused and angry and blame it on other people.
- unshavedyak 3y ago
  I'm kinda confused on the downvotes here - are we advocating for media conformance? What's the counter view to wanting media which sources more?
titzer 3y ago
The problem is right there in the article--incentives. There are no consequences for lying, for telling obvious untruths. No one is embarrassed or ashamed of being a liar. You just have to keep doubling down forever, and even in the face of overwhelming facts, keep throwing out moronic defense after moronic defense. Keep your mob angry and their minds completely closed. Make sure to do some extra projection; accuse others of that which you are guilty. Then in all the finger-pointing no one will ever figure out the truth. In all of these activities, lies are your friend and your reward. Local incentives. Bastards will just keep lying because it's the best strategy for them. Until there are abrupt and justified consequences for lies and liars, we will swim in them like a flood.
jerf 3y ago
As soon as they acquired the reputation benefit of everyone "knowing" they report only true and verified events, someone would swoop in to spend it.
oh_sigh 3y ago
Do people really want to wait for their news though?
- esafak 3y ago
  I do. There is such an information overload that I would prefer to wait until the weekend to read something decent and concise.
thefz 3y ago
> I think this is an opportunity for traditional news networks to re-emerge as trusted news sources, by reporting only true and verified events. Too many already base their reports on social media, or user comments, or influencer bullshit. The damage is done.

thegrim33 3y ago

Two issues: 1) For many people, myself included, the mainstream media's reputation is so extremely damaged that anything short of a full, complete, tear down and from scratch rebuild of the entire industry won't in the slightest bit convince me to even give them a second chance. I've already moved on. 2) Even if a network literally posts only verifiable true facts, even if they have a panel of 1000 scientists and 1000 experts and 1000 people of different political persuasions that all agree with each other that the printed facts are "true", the organization can still easily lie and manipulate the population by simply selectively choosing which stories to cover and which to ignore, depending on which stories benefit their ideologies or hurt their rival ideologoies. Just "telling the truth" isn't remotely enough, they need to be both politically and ideologically neutral, they need to cover all events impartially and equally.

topherclay 3y ago
>they need to cover all events impartially and equally. A 100% accurate map of the territory is just the territory itself, and is useless as a map.
unraveller 3y ago
Changing anything would be admitting fault, and a self-professed authority never does that. Not when they can just latch on to other ways of virtue signalling as a kind of reputation repair substitute, much like what their advertising space does for other companies.

unshavedyak 3y ago

The problem is they're _also_ guilty of spinning "fake news". Yea, it's far more subtle, but "people left" for a reason. I think there is opportunity here, but i don't think it's back to the old ways. I imagine it would be some hybrid. A news source which aggressively documents and details sources. All opinions backed by a paper trail, etcetc. I'd pay for that. Or something.. but i don't know what that looks like. These days it feels like everything has an agenda, and nothing (at least that i've seen) backs up claims/opinions/supposed-facts with the data fueling the statement.

titzer 3y ago
It kind of doesn't matter when the median attention span is microseconds. What shames people is lies they told in the past coming back to bite them in the ass. But the public forgets the past, so when lies come back to bite people, they are just confused and angry and blame it on other people.
unshavedyak 3y ago
I'm kinda confused on the downvotes here - are we advocating for media conformance? What's the counter view to wanting media which sources more?

titzer 3y ago

The problem is right there in the article--incentives. There are no consequences for lying, for telling obvious untruths. No one is embarrassed or ashamed of being a liar. You just have to keep doubling down forever, and even in the face of overwhelming facts, keep throwing out moronic defense after moronic defense. Keep your mob angry and their minds completely closed. Make sure to do some extra projection; accuse others of that which you are guilty. Then in all the finger-pointing no one will ever figure out the truth. In all of these activities, lies are your friend and your reward. Local incentives. Bastards will just keep lying because it's the best strategy for them. Until there are abrupt and justified consequences for lies and liars, we will swim in them like a flood.

jerf 3y ago

As soon as they acquired the reputation benefit of everyone "knowing" they report only true and verified events, someone would swoop in to spend it.

oh_sigh 3y ago

Do people really want to wait for their news though?

esafak 3y ago
I do. There is such an information overload that I would prefer to wait until the weekend to read something decent and concise.

thefz 3y ago

> I think this is an opportunity for traditional news networks to re-emerge as trusted news sources, by reporting only true and verified events. Too many already base their reports on social media, or user comments, or influencer bullshit. The damage is done.