6 ms·

Maybe if we're going to name the department of defense the department of war we can go all the way and rename the FCC to the 'ministry of propaganda'? A free p

Maybe if we're going to name the department of defense the department of war we can go all the way and rename the FCC to the 'ministry of propaganda'? A free press is worth its weight in gold. If you let go of that you're going to lose more than you bargain for. All those free speech advocates are a bit quiet on this, wonder what happened to them.

matthewdgreen 8mo ago
It would obviously be the Ministry of Truth.
- tombert 8mo ago
  I assumed it would the the Ministry of Trump. He likes putting his name on things.
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  You're probably right.
- Bender 8mo ago
  That was already taken by the DHS and then dismantled in 2022.
- Quekid5 8mo ago
  Ministry of Truth & Love.
skeledrew 8mo ago
Is a free press even worth anything of the country is already otherwise lost?
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  Yes, because it is a backbone through which people trying to hold things together can communicate. Remember how the USSR supposedly held together and could not be defeated, and how the Nazi's overran Europe and there were many who figured the easy way out was to just give up and accept it? The free press held the line, in Western Europe through underground newspapers, which made a massive difference in keeping people informed and in the East between 45 and ~86 through the various - sometimes hand copied - smuggled literature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_media_in_German-occupied_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_media_in_German-oc... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_press Soldarity would have never gotten off the ground without that network and speaking for my own country I suspect that without de Volkskrant and Het Parool the war would have gotten much closer to completely eradicating the Jewish population here. It was bad enough as it was but the network that coordinated the distribution of the underground newspapers was also instrumental in keeping the underground resistance network going. The one fed off the other and vice versa, both as a training ground and as a messenger service. Lots of those stories will never be told (unfortunately) but there were a ton of very brave people that knew full well they risked a one-way trip to the dunes if discovered.
- markdown 8mo ago
  What free press? The mass media is controlled by a handful of billionaires who kowtow to the government in order to earn more billions.
  - xtiansimon 8mo ago
    PBS/NPR?
    - markdown 8mo ago
      The billionaire media owners won't allow that to continue. Defunded. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/endi...
      - xtiansimon 8mo ago
        Support your local PBS or NPR Radio Station: https://help.pbs.org/support/home https://help.pbs.org/support/home https://www.npr.org/support https://www.npr.org/support They will gratefully accept any amount.
johnsmith1840 8mo ago
[flagged]
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  > I mean it's not like any administration was any different? If you really believe that then I don't think we're going to have much to discuss. This is not one of those 'both sides' discussions. This is a current affairs discussion.
  - johnsmith1840 8mo ago
    [flagged]
    - jacquesm 8mo ago
      Yes, (1) dogwhistle for 'racism is ok' (2) my bodily autonomy beats you staying alive (3) see (1). Note that I'm not an American, but I know a grifter and an asshole when I see one and trump is both, without a doubt. If you believe the two parties in the USA are equal in this sense then you are willfully blind at this point. The number of people that are comfortable with outright racism and xenophobia on HN is scary, the number of people that are unable to see the hand behind the curtain during a time when we were very vulnerable and who seem to take their personal comfort above the health of others is scary as well. But I guess that what you get when you tell a good chunk of the world that they are movie stars authors and celebrities. COVID was interesting: as pandemics go this was a mild one, and yet, we fucked it up and here you are using it as a plank in your argument that the government has too much power. Sorry, but if that was your takeaway then you really were not paying attention and you probably have no clue about biology. If you have the time and the spare cash go buy the book Spillover, read it and then check the date when it was written. Also realize that it is about the next pandemic, not the previous one. It probably won't do your sleep any good but at least you'll be a bit better informed. Clearly you're not stupid, this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46983287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46983287 was on the money. Now follow the money and see where it leads. Also, and final note on this: from the perspective of many other countries the USA has a one party system, with one party as a milder version of the other, but that doesn't mean that that not-so-mild version does not have some material differences, and that some of those differences may well lead to destabilizing the country on a scale not seen since the last few hundred years.
thrance 8mo ago
During a press conference yesterday, Hegseth, the secretary of war, received a question on Iran from CNN that he didn't feel the need to answer, and then went on a rant about how he can't wait for Ellison to buy the network and rid it of any opposition to the regime [1]. He literally spelt it out. Free press in the US is already dead, all media belongs to conservative pedophile oligarchs who use it to manipulate the masses and push their warmongering narratives. > All those free speech advocates are a bit quiet on this, wonder what happened to them. There are no principled free speech advocates on the right, only people who have an issue with the media not being completely controlled by their side. Their silence then makes perfect sense: they are getting exactly what they wanted. [1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-chief-says-hes-eager-trump-ally-buy-cnn-he-blasts-war-coverage-2026-03-13/ https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-chie...
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  Yes, they are no longer even pretending to hide, I think that's the thing that really changed. Up to a few years ago there would always be the figleaf. Now, they're just stating openly what they're up to and nobody bats an eye. It's an extreme case of the normalization of deviance. And in a way that is the answer to that age old question: "How could they let it happen?" when contemplating Germany ca. 1936.
  - h0dl0n 8mo ago
    [dead]
- stinkbeetle 8mo ago
  Funny how many of the people who only a few years ago weregloating about how private companies can do what they want, and there's no issues with censoring people or spreading propaganda (in clandestine cooperation with the government) are now seeing it blow back in their faces. I mean everybody who isn't stupid knew it was coming, not everybody thought it would come so quickly.
  - the_why_of_y 8mo ago
thinkingtoilet 8mo ago
And let us say out loud after all the whining about cancel culture it was Republicans, as expected, who are actually going after the first amendment.
- CamperBob2 8mo ago
  They're Republicans. Every accusation is either a confession in disguise, a plan already in progress, or a fond wish.

matthewdgreen 8mo ago

It would obviously be the Ministry of Truth.

tombert 8mo ago
I assumed it would the the Ministry of Trump. He likes putting his name on things.
jacquesm 8mo ago
You're probably right.
Bender 8mo ago
That was already taken by the DHS and then dismantled in 2022.
Quekid5 8mo ago
Ministry of Truth & Love.

skeledrew 8mo ago

Is a free press even worth anything of the country is already otherwise lost?

jacquesm 8mo ago
Yes, because it is a backbone through which people trying to hold things together can communicate. Remember how the USSR supposedly held together and could not be defeated, and how the Nazi's overran Europe and there were many who figured the easy way out was to just give up and accept it? The free press held the line, in Western Europe through underground newspapers, which made a massive difference in keeping people informed and in the East between 45 and ~86 through the various - sometimes hand copied - smuggled literature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_media_in_German-occupied_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_media_in_German-oc... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_press Soldarity would have never gotten off the ground without that network and speaking for my own country I suspect that without de Volkskrant and Het Parool the war would have gotten much closer to completely eradicating the Jewish population here. It was bad enough as it was but the network that coordinated the distribution of the underground newspapers was also instrumental in keeping the underground resistance network going. The one fed off the other and vice versa, both as a training ground and as a messenger service. Lots of those stories will never be told (unfortunately) but there were a ton of very brave people that knew full well they risked a one-way trip to the dunes if discovered.
markdown 8mo ago
What free press? The mass media is controlled by a handful of billionaires who kowtow to the government in order to earn more billions.
- xtiansimon 8mo ago
  PBS/NPR?
  - markdown 8mo ago
    The billionaire media owners won't allow that to continue. Defunded. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/endi...
    - xtiansimon 8mo ago
      Support your local PBS or NPR Radio Station: https://help.pbs.org/support/home https://help.pbs.org/support/home https://www.npr.org/support https://www.npr.org/support They will gratefully accept any amount.

johnsmith1840 8mo ago

[flagged]

jacquesm 8mo ago
> I mean it's not like any administration was any different? If you really believe that then I don't think we're going to have much to discuss. This is not one of those 'both sides' discussions. This is a current affairs discussion.
- johnsmith1840 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - jacquesm 8mo ago
    Yes, (1) dogwhistle for 'racism is ok' (2) my bodily autonomy beats you staying alive (3) see (1). Note that I'm not an American, but I know a grifter and an asshole when I see one and trump is both, without a doubt. If you believe the two parties in the USA are equal in this sense then you are willfully blind at this point. The number of people that are comfortable with outright racism and xenophobia on HN is scary, the number of people that are unable to see the hand behind the curtain during a time when we were very vulnerable and who seem to take their personal comfort above the health of others is scary as well. But I guess that what you get when you tell a good chunk of the world that they are movie stars authors and celebrities. COVID was interesting: as pandemics go this was a mild one, and yet, we fucked it up and here you are using it as a plank in your argument that the government has too much power. Sorry, but if that was your takeaway then you really were not paying attention and you probably have no clue about biology. If you have the time and the spare cash go buy the book Spillover, read it and then check the date when it was written. Also realize that it is about the next pandemic, not the previous one. It probably won't do your sleep any good but at least you'll be a bit better informed. Clearly you're not stupid, this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46983287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46983287 was on the money. Now follow the money and see where it leads. Also, and final note on this: from the perspective of many other countries the USA has a one party system, with one party as a milder version of the other, but that doesn't mean that that not-so-mild version does not have some material differences, and that some of those differences may well lead to destabilizing the country on a scale not seen since the last few hundred years.

thrance 8mo ago

During a press conference yesterday, Hegseth, the secretary of war, received a question on Iran from CNN that he didn't feel the need to answer, and then went on a rant about how he can't wait for Ellison to buy the network and rid it of any opposition to the regime [1]. He literally spelt it out. Free press in the US is already dead, all media belongs to conservative pedophile oligarchs who use it to manipulate the masses and push their warmongering narratives. > All those free speech advocates are a bit quiet on this, wonder what happened to them. There are no principled free speech advocates on the right, only people who have an issue with the media not being completely controlled by their side. Their silence then makes perfect sense: they are getting exactly what they wanted. [1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-chief-says-hes-eager-trump-ally-buy-cnn-he-blasts-war-coverage-2026-03-13/ https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pentagon-chie...

jacquesm 8mo ago
Yes, they are no longer even pretending to hide, I think that's the thing that really changed. Up to a few years ago there would always be the figleaf. Now, they're just stating openly what they're up to and nobody bats an eye. It's an extreme case of the normalization of deviance. And in a way that is the answer to that age old question: "How could they let it happen?" when contemplating Germany ca. 1936.
- h0dl0n 8mo ago
  [dead]
stinkbeetle 8mo ago
Funny how many of the people who only a few years ago weregloating about how private companies can do what they want, and there's no issues with censoring people or spreading propaganda (in clandestine cooperation with the government) are now seeing it blow back in their faces. I mean everybody who isn't stupid knew it was coming, not everybody thought it would come so quickly.
- the_why_of_y 8mo ago

thinkingtoilet 8mo ago

And let us say out loud after all the whining about cancel culture it was Republicans, as expected, who are actually going after the first amendment.

CamperBob2 8mo ago
They're Republicans. Every accusation is either a confession in disguise, a plan already in progress, or a fond wish.