4 ms·

We Know One Big Loser in This Election: The Mainstream Media

29 points by donsupreme 2y ago

EasyMark 2y ago
I think this is a bad take. The press mostly do their jobs, I see lots of opinion which they could reduce, but most of the time it’s on point, at least in the mainstream news, and sometimes even fox. it’s not their fault if Americans are giving in and listening to foreign propaganda from Russia and the CCP, these easily fooled people will have to get burned like they’re getting ready to get burned in the next 4 years, to return to the fold. They’re essentially still children when it comes to threats like promoted bluecheck bots funded by foreign actors like the aforementioned ones on twitter and reddit.
- bediger4000 2y ago
  Not saying you're wrong, but how about the billionaire owners interfering with LA Times and Washington Post ordinary editorial processes?
- pyeri 2y ago
  > The press mostly do their jobs The press often does a great job of shielding those in power from reality, and that's what it did in most of the Biden term. Now, I also disagree with the other extreme view that press needs to be positioned so against the establishment that it conflates facts with fiction. Not taking the side of either ruling or opposition but pushing for society's interest is the real job of press.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- mightyham 2y ago
  The idea that much of the press is just doing their job seems pretty naive. There are tons of incredibly interested parties when it comes to controlling the focus and narrative of press coverage.
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
WaPo not posting the editorial was a silly move, of trying to please a volatile creature. But what really gets me is the NYT. Man, they bent over backwards to normalize & sane-wash the craziest shit. Michael Tae Sweeney just turned it into his hole bit, but boy was he ever right: "the media covers Trump like this because they want him to win." We have colossal problems with absolutely deranged things going on in the far right media & online streams/radio, blending conspiracy and disinformation together, just gleefully outdoing each other for hotter own the libs takes. We keep saying low information voters, but it's only true sometimes; it's just as much people being fed the wildest craziest shit. And rather than actually report some of the wild shit going on straight from the presidents mouth, like the NYT could do, it's all re-parsed into, oh, hahaha old man Trump is at it again with his somewhat divisive talk! For a while on Bluesky there was a Trump headline translator, where people would put real or imagined whores in one side, and the NYT headline on the other. Too too many were real examples of absolutely crazy making-palpable bending-over-backwards efforts to help out. It just feels like there's no one at all to report accurately.
- defrost 2y ago
  > where people would put real or imagined whores in one side and René Descartes on the other?
  - jauntywundrkind 2y ago
    Real or imagined *quotes in one side Apologies!
    - defrost 2y ago
      Heh. No worries- auto completion and other assists have butchered my comments at times also, I got a chuckle from it :-)
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- PittleyDunkin 2y ago
xnx 2y ago
Fox News is the most popular news show for the last 22 years. That is the mainstream media.
- xqcgrek2 2y ago
  Fox News has a tiny audience compared to network news (NBC, CBS, ABC) and global news such as BBC.
  - ano-ther 2y ago
    Audience (Oct 2024) CBS: 4,963,000 ABC: 4,441,000 NBC: 3,703,000 Fox News: 3,253,000 https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/stats-us-cable-broadcast-tv-network-rankings.php https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/stats-us-cable-broadcast-...
    - alphabettsy 2y ago
      A major part of the conservative brand is pretending to be the downtrodden underdog. Conservative media has massive reach from mainstream like Fox News to social on YouTube and TikTok.
      - goalieca 2y ago
        Devils advocate but the data listed in the parent post shows Fox News is a quarter of the audience share while liberal media sums the rest
        Gud 2y ago
        Can you really calculate like that? Presumably a lot of the networks would have a lot of audience overlap?
        xnx 2y ago
        That is a good thing to consider, but I'm not sure that sure that "ABC" is "liberal" to an opposite degree to the way Fox is "conservative".
readthenotes1 2y ago
"major news outlets have twisted themselves into knots trying to appease critics on the right." And yet somehow there is no mention there of Biden's diminished mental capacity until after it was too late. Could it be that the major news outlets were twisting themselves into knots to appease the right, or that they actually weren't. For example, The dramatic edits on the CBS 60 minutes interview with Harris would seem to indicate that they actually were trying to do something else
- unsnap_biceps 2y ago
  Do you actually have a source that has "The dramatic edits" that were made? It seems silly to keep pressing on that when no one seems to have the edited out content. 60 minutes edits all their interviews. If Trump accepted their invite, his interview would have been edited as well. Would that have been wrong?
  - brg 2y ago
    The only reason it’s discussed is because the unedited interview was posted before the network broadcast. https://youtu.be/CUcTwYS1pd4?si=patMUOdlLse5ZeV3 https://youtu.be/CUcTwYS1pd4?si=patMUOdlLse5ZeV3
- sundaeofshock 2y ago
  After focusing on Biden’s mental capacity until he was forced out the race, the same media outlets turned around and proceeded to sanewash Trump and his obvious sundowing.
cen4 2y ago
15-16 Billion was spent this cycle according to public data. They talk about the donors a lot. But they hardly tell anyone the biggest beneficiary is the Media. This year we also had the EU, Indian, UK and French elections and the total cost was less than 2 Billion. So the big underlying question is what are Americans even getting out of all that spending? Better quality journos? Better quality politicians? Or just better spin doctors, consultants, fund raisers, talking heads?
- mysterydip 2y ago
  As an American who was bombarded daily with calls, texts, ads, and mail, all it did was annoy me and want to vote for the other person.
- tfandango 2y ago
  I received a lot of anxiety personally; it was difficult to disengage from. I even did not like the outcome but sense some sort of peace anyway, I think, due to just being able to carry on with life for a little while longer.
  - cen4 2y ago
    That is key. You got to stay busy with other real world stuff. Otherwise the media vortex will suck you in. Just try to be conscious of how much Media you consume daily. And then slowly reduce it/switch it with stuff that adds Value to your life. The whole machinery, thanks to the amount of cash pouring in, has gone off the rails in terms of, no limit exploitation of people's fears. Shows what power the media as a whole has on people's well being.
    - tfandango 2y ago
      Thanks, I've been ignoring it since, for the most part, except for a few things just to be aware. I've been studying concepts more deeply now, no more info from tweets: "tariffs good" or "tariffs bad". I appricate your response, don't know if you will see this. On one hand I like HN because comments do not turn into fights, but on the other hand, I check the comments every few weeks and I miss stuff like this. Best.
meiraleal 2y ago
Big Tech is the mainstream media, the old media is being kicked like an old dog

29 points by donsupreme 2y ago

I think this is a bad take. The press mostly do their jobs, I see lots of opinion which they could reduce, but most of the time it’s on point, at least in the mainstream news, and sometimes even fox. it’s not their fault if Americans are giving in and listening to foreign propaganda from Russia and the CCP, these easily fooled people will have to get burned like they’re getting ready to get burned in the next 4 years, to return to the fold. They’re essentially still children when it comes to threats like promoted bluecheck bots funded by foreign actors like the aforementioned ones on twitter and reddit.

bediger4000 2y ago
Not saying you're wrong, but how about the billionaire owners interfering with LA Times and Washington Post ordinary editorial processes?
pyeri 2y ago
> The press mostly do their jobs The press often does a great job of shielding those in power from reality, and that's what it did in most of the Biden term. Now, I also disagree with the other extreme view that press needs to be positioned so against the establishment that it conflates facts with fiction. Not taking the side of either ruling or opposition but pushing for society's interest is the real job of press.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mightyham 2y ago
The idea that much of the press is just doing their job seems pretty naive. There are tons of incredibly interested parties when it comes to controlling the focus and narrative of press coverage.

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

WaPo not posting the editorial was a silly move, of trying to please a volatile creature. But what really gets me is the NYT. Man, they bent over backwards to normalize & sane-wash the craziest shit. Michael Tae Sweeney just turned it into his hole bit, but boy was he ever right: "the media covers Trump like this because they want him to win." We have colossal problems with absolutely deranged things going on in the far right media & online streams/radio, blending conspiracy and disinformation together, just gleefully outdoing each other for hotter own the libs takes. We keep saying low information voters, but it's only true sometimes; it's just as much people being fed the wildest craziest shit. And rather than actually report some of the wild shit going on straight from the presidents mouth, like the NYT could do, it's all re-parsed into, oh, hahaha old man Trump is at it again with his somewhat divisive talk! For a while on Bluesky there was a Trump headline translator, where people would put real or imagined whores in one side, and the NYT headline on the other. Too too many were real examples of absolutely crazy making-palpable bending-over-backwards efforts to help out. It just feels like there's no one at all to report accurately.

defrost 2y ago
> where people would put real or imagined whores in one side and René Descartes on the other?
- jauntywundrkind 2y ago
  Real or imagined *quotes in one side Apologies!
  - defrost 2y ago
    Heh. No worries- auto completion and other assists have butchered my comments at times also, I got a chuckle from it :-)
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
PittleyDunkin 2y ago

xnx 2y ago

Fox News is the most popular news show for the last 22 years. That is the mainstream media.

xqcgrek2 2y ago
Fox News has a tiny audience compared to network news (NBC, CBS, ABC) and global news such as BBC.
- ano-ther 2y ago
  Audience (Oct 2024) CBS: 4,963,000 ABC: 4,441,000 NBC: 3,703,000 Fox News: 3,253,000 https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/stats-us-cable-broadcast-tv-network-rankings.php https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/stats-us-cable-broadcast-...
  - alphabettsy 2y ago
    A major part of the conservative brand is pretending to be the downtrodden underdog. Conservative media has massive reach from mainstream like Fox News to social on YouTube and TikTok.
    - goalieca 2y ago
      Devils advocate but the data listed in the parent post shows Fox News is a quarter of the audience share while liberal media sums the rest
      - Gud 2y ago
        Can you really calculate like that? Presumably a lot of the networks would have a lot of audience overlap?
      - xnx 2y ago
        That is a good thing to consider, but I'm not sure that sure that "ABC" is "liberal" to an opposite degree to the way Fox is "conservative".

readthenotes1 2y ago

"major news outlets have twisted themselves into knots trying to appease critics on the right." And yet somehow there is no mention there of Biden's diminished mental capacity until after it was too late. Could it be that the major news outlets were twisting themselves into knots to appease the right, or that they actually weren't. For example, The dramatic edits on the CBS 60 minutes interview with Harris would seem to indicate that they actually were trying to do something else

unsnap_biceps 2y ago
Do you actually have a source that has "The dramatic edits" that were made? It seems silly to keep pressing on that when no one seems to have the edited out content. 60 minutes edits all their interviews. If Trump accepted their invite, his interview would have been edited as well. Would that have been wrong?
- brg 2y ago
  The only reason it’s discussed is because the unedited interview was posted before the network broadcast. https://youtu.be/CUcTwYS1pd4?si=patMUOdlLse5ZeV3 https://youtu.be/CUcTwYS1pd4?si=patMUOdlLse5ZeV3
sundaeofshock 2y ago
After focusing on Biden’s mental capacity until he was forced out the race, the same media outlets turned around and proceeded to sanewash Trump and his obvious sundowing.

cen4 2y ago

15-16 Billion was spent this cycle according to public data. They talk about the donors a lot. But they hardly tell anyone the biggest beneficiary is the Media. This year we also had the EU, Indian, UK and French elections and the total cost was less than 2 Billion. So the big underlying question is what are Americans even getting out of all that spending? Better quality journos? Better quality politicians? Or just better spin doctors, consultants, fund raisers, talking heads?

mysterydip 2y ago
As an American who was bombarded daily with calls, texts, ads, and mail, all it did was annoy me and want to vote for the other person.
tfandango 2y ago
I received a lot of anxiety personally; it was difficult to disengage from. I even did not like the outcome but sense some sort of peace anyway, I think, due to just being able to carry on with life for a little while longer.
- cen4 2y ago
  That is key. You got to stay busy with other real world stuff. Otherwise the media vortex will suck you in. Just try to be conscious of how much Media you consume daily. And then slowly reduce it/switch it with stuff that adds Value to your life. The whole machinery, thanks to the amount of cash pouring in, has gone off the rails in terms of, no limit exploitation of people's fears. Shows what power the media as a whole has on people's well being.
  - tfandango 2y ago
    Thanks, I've been ignoring it since, for the most part, except for a few things just to be aware. I've been studying concepts more deeply now, no more info from tweets: "tariffs good" or "tariffs bad". I appricate your response, don't know if you will see this. On one hand I like HN because comments do not turn into fights, but on the other hand, I check the comments every few weeks and I miss stuff like this. Best.

meiraleal 2y ago

Big Tech is the mainstream media, the old media is being kicked like an old dog