5 ms·

I’ve generally found that overtly biased outlets on the right aren’t a huge source of outrage for me because their spin is so blatant—once I notice the propagan

by jquery 2y ago

I’ve generally found that overtly biased outlets on the right aren’t a huge source of outrage for me because their spin is so blatant—once I notice the propaganda, it’s easy to tune out. The bigger frustration is knowing how many people take that coverage at face value. It’s not quite the same “outrage” the article describes, though. By contrast, the NYT often feels more subtle and therefore more effective at stoking that sense of constant agitation. They’re meticulously fact-based, but their editorial choices—what they highlight, the framing they use—can seem designed to provoke a reaction rather than just inform. It’s not only about the content of the stories; sometimes it’s also about how they present or prioritize them. If you haven’t encountered this firsthand, checking out “NYTimes pitch bot” on Bluesky can illustrate how their style can veer into outrage territory. It’s a satirical account, but it often points out the patterns in the Times’ headlines and story angles that might otherwise go unnoticed.

seneca 2y ago
You're absolutely correct, but you're missing an important detail. I'm assuming you're more aligned politically with the left. If you're not, I apologize for the assumption. To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibilities. It's very much a "fish in water" scenario. Trying to read articles from multiple sources can help, and questioning why you agree with one take over another. In the end, these are pretty sophisticated operations, and they know how to prey on their targets.
- psunavy03 2y ago
  Subreddits are a great place to see the result of this . . . it's incredible how much utter shite and misinformation is just taken for granted as "the way things are" and how much the details of said misinformation depend on your political leanings. And of course everyone is convinced that they have the rational truth and it's the other guy who's the "low-information voter" being taken by the propaganda.
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibilities. This isn't really a matter of subjective opinion, though. Objective surveys have consistently shown that Fox News viewers are worse-informed than people who don't pay attention to any conventional news sources. NYT readers are a long way up from there.
  - skissane 2y ago
    That’s not really comparing apples-to-apples though: a cable TV network aimed at the undereducated masses versus a prestigious broadsheet newspaper pitched at the educated classes There’s plenty of right-of-centre magazines and websites aimed at educated right-wingers: e.g. First Things, Commentary, The American Conservative, the Spectator
    - CamperBob2 2y ago
      Fair point, but it was the OP who first mentioned Fox News and the NYT in the same sentence.
      - skissane 2y ago
        Right, but I think their point was that they are both biased just in opposite directions, and bringing the orthogonal difference in target audience education level into it is arguably confusing things Maybe a better demonstration of their point might be comparing NYT/WaPo to the WSJ
    - lazyeye 2y ago
      I read a book on the history of the NYT. They would market themselves to advertisers with "our readers have the highest disposable income of aby news source in America". It's an interesting reflection on the modern Democrat party and politics in general, that the NYT now leans left.
  - torstenvl 2y ago
- hansonkd 2y ago
  > NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you After this past election cycle I don't see how people can make that comment with a straight face. Media in general is very right leaning. Some like CNN and NYT are maybe slightly more left than far right fox news, but there aren't many "left leaning" mass market news sources that are essentially felating one party for millions of people. NYT and CNN, etc are all very critical of democrats when there is a controversy. This is stark contrast to fox news which essentially is willful ignorance of anything bad republicans / trump has done. The "normalization" of Trump's corruption by media in general should be enough to see which way they lean. Its just that if anybody is slightly less than full blown fox news conservative they get labeled as left leaning by everyone in the media so there is some idea of "balance" but conservative media (fox news, conservative podcasts, etc) are overwhelmingly mass market and the majority.
  - sandspar 2y ago
    Interesting to be around for the birth of a false fact like "the media is right leaning". Overnight you see people start parroting something that's clearly untrue.
    - hansonkd 2y ago
      > clearly untrue Maybe you haven't been paying attention the past 5 years, but there has been a dramatic shift to the right in media. Companies change ownership and the new owners take advantage of the historical left leaning nature of the media. The magic trick fox news and conservatives has pulled is by being so far right that center/slightly right parties look far left. The normalization of the MAGA movement is evidence of this right leaning media machine. Look at who owns the "left leaning" media companies. CNN is owned by conservatives. Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson audience dwarf most other channels these days. fox news has almost 3-4 times the viewership of CNN which is the preferred example of a "left leaning" network to balance them. The rights constant raging against mainstream media is an attempt to distract from the fact that mainstream media is in fact conservative.
  - claar 2y ago
    "media is in general is very right leaning" Wow. You don't need to be very right leaning to feel the complete opposite. I'm simply amazed someone could feel that way, as nearly all media is very left-leaning (to my perspective).
tayo42 2y ago
In the last week what headline and story do you think was overblown by the NYT?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
trimethylpurine 2y ago
>meticulously fact-based Interesting... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_con... I'm not picking on them specifically. If you'd said this about any news outlet, I wouldn't believe you.
- jquery 2y ago
  If that's your standard, nobody is meticulously fact based. I stand by my statement, I didn't say they were perfect.
  - trimethylpurine 2y ago
    Exactly. No shortage of people leaving the industry because fact based isn't even the goal. Editors push for outrage. That's the point.
polyfish42 2y ago
I agree. Came on here to say that doing your own research is one way to reduce outrage stress. After reading a top political story in NYT, I hardly ever learn a valid point made by “the other side”. Researching with ChatGPT, or reading conservative media, I can usually find some. This makes the other side a little more rational in my imagination and reduces the stress. Steelman your opponent’s arguments! It’s not just good for thinking, it’s relaxing!

by jquery 2y ago

seneca 2y ago

You're absolutely correct, but you're missing an important detail. I'm assuming you're more aligned politically with the left. If you're not, I apologize for the assumption. To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibilities. It's very much a "fish in water" scenario. Trying to read articles from multiple sources can help, and questioning why you agree with one take over another. In the end, these are pretty sophisticated operations, and they know how to prey on their targets.

psunavy03 2y ago
Subreddits are a great place to see the result of this . . . it's incredible how much utter shite and misinformation is just taken for granted as "the way things are" and how much the details of said misinformation depend on your political leanings. And of course everyone is convinced that they have the rational truth and it's the other guy who's the "low-information voter" being taken by the propaganda.
CamperBob2 2y ago
To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibilities. This isn't really a matter of subjective opinion, though. Objective surveys have consistently shown that Fox News viewers are worse-informed than people who don't pay attention to any conventional news sources. NYT readers are a long way up from there.
- skissane 2y ago
  That’s not really comparing apples-to-apples though: a cable TV network aimed at the undereducated masses versus a prestigious broadsheet newspaper pitched at the educated classes There’s plenty of right-of-centre magazines and websites aimed at educated right-wingers: e.g. First Things, Commentary, The American Conservative, the Spectator
  - CamperBob2 2y ago
    Fair point, but it was the OP who first mentioned Fox News and the NYT in the same sentence.
    - skissane 2y ago
      Right, but I think their point was that they are both biased just in opposite directions, and bringing the orthogonal difference in target audience education level into it is arguably confusing things Maybe a better demonstration of their point might be comparing NYT/WaPo to the WSJ
  - lazyeye 2y ago
    I read a book on the history of the NYT. They would market themselves to advertisers with "our readers have the highest disposable income of aby news source in America". It's an interesting reflection on the modern Democrat party and politics in general, that the NYT now leans left.
- torstenvl 2y ago
hansonkd 2y ago
> NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you After this past election cycle I don't see how people can make that comment with a straight face. Media in general is very right leaning. Some like CNN and NYT are maybe slightly more left than far right fox news, but there aren't many "left leaning" mass market news sources that are essentially felating one party for millions of people. NYT and CNN, etc are all very critical of democrats when there is a controversy. This is stark contrast to fox news which essentially is willful ignorance of anything bad republicans / trump has done. The "normalization" of Trump's corruption by media in general should be enough to see which way they lean. Its just that if anybody is slightly less than full blown fox news conservative they get labeled as left leaning by everyone in the media so there is some idea of "balance" but conservative media (fox news, conservative podcasts, etc) are overwhelmingly mass market and the majority.
- sandspar 2y ago
  Interesting to be around for the birth of a false fact like "the media is right leaning". Overnight you see people start parroting something that's clearly untrue.
  - hansonkd 2y ago
    > clearly untrue Maybe you haven't been paying attention the past 5 years, but there has been a dramatic shift to the right in media. Companies change ownership and the new owners take advantage of the historical left leaning nature of the media. The magic trick fox news and conservatives has pulled is by being so far right that center/slightly right parties look far left. The normalization of the MAGA movement is evidence of this right leaning media machine. Look at who owns the "left leaning" media companies. CNN is owned by conservatives. Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson audience dwarf most other channels these days. fox news has almost 3-4 times the viewership of CNN which is the preferred example of a "left leaning" network to balance them. The rights constant raging against mainstream media is an attempt to distract from the fact that mainstream media is in fact conservative.
- claar 2y ago
  "media is in general is very right leaning" Wow. You don't need to be very right leaning to feel the complete opposite. I'm simply amazed someone could feel that way, as nearly all media is very left-leaning (to my perspective).

tayo42 2y ago

In the last week what headline and story do you think was overblown by the NYT?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

trimethylpurine 2y ago

>meticulously fact-based Interesting... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_con... I'm not picking on them specifically. If you'd said this about any news outlet, I wouldn't believe you.

jquery 2y ago
If that's your standard, nobody is meticulously fact based. I stand by my statement, I didn't say they were perfect.
- trimethylpurine 2y ago
  Exactly. No shortage of people leaving the industry because fact based isn't even the goal. Editors push for outrage. That's the point.

polyfish42 2y ago

I agree. Came on here to say that doing your own research is one way to reduce outrage stress. After reading a top political story in NYT, I hardly ever learn a valid point made by “the other side”. Researching with ChatGPT, or reading conservative media, I can usually find some. This makes the other side a little more rational in my imagination and reduces the stress. Steelman your opponent’s arguments! It’s not just good for thinking, it’s relaxing!