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News is biased, but not how most people think, it's biased towards conflict (and novelty, doomsaying, and sensationalism). They could, however, be using those
by jamesbritt 14y ago
News is biased, but not how most people think, it's biased towards conflict (and novelty, doomsaying, and sensationalism).
They could, however, be using those entertainment factors to cover, say, the fall of real wages, or the current state of unions, or what's actually in a Congressional budget, or any number of other topics that seem to get very little air-time.
- greenyoda 14y agoI'd also like to see more air time devoted to the Congressional budget, but I can't think of a way of presenting it that the average TV viewer would find entertaining.
- Tloewald 14y agoThe problem isn't that it's been tried and found difficult, but it's been assumed to be difficult and not tried (to paraphrase P. G. Wodehouse)
- colmvp 14y agoI disagree. I did work for a startup that specifically showed un-biased news on a variety of pertinent topics from a variety of great sources. Yet the videos that made the most money for them (advertising revenue) were the stupid shit you'd expect. Gossip, memes, sexual related content... At the end of the day the most mainstream news stories/clips were far more lucrative than the topics a typical HNers/New Yorker reader might enjoy.
- Tloewald 14y agoThe OP referred to turning various kinds of interesting subject matter into entertainment, versus merely reporting it. I think this is actually an interesting idea, and I don't think it has really been tried. The typical entertaining news story "writes itself". Gossip, stupid pet tricks, etc. Indeed the entertainment industry is itself very conservative in its choices of subject matter.
- pdonis 14y agoThat word "entertaining" is the root of the problem. People don't want to actually think about issues; they want to be entertained. You can't fix problems by being entertained.