This is a split from another thread...so as not to derail that thread, but makes for an interesting topic so I thought I would throw it into the ring.
There is no such thing as MSM anymore.
Or...to be more specific there is no such thing as MSM in the way that the rightwing wants to claim.
All media is equal today - from the crappiest blog propaganda sites to well researched journalistic sites. They are all equally accessable (but NOT equally accountable).
The average person gets his news now from where? How many news sources are available at the click of a mouse? The only thing MSM means now...is "traditional" in a media sea.
Our media problems extend far beyond Left/Right.
The majority of out "traditional media" is owned by 5 corporations. Fox is one of the Top Five. That is a very very few owning a lot of our sources for information. When you go outside the "traditional media"...you run into accountability problems. There is no accountability for facts, they can't be sued or held to account. Bloggers, independents - they aren't held to any standard. Traditional media is - because people pay for it and they get pissed. They can also sue.
When the majority of our accountable media is in the hands of FIVE...and the rest runs the gamut from good to crap, with no accountability, we are in a bit of trouble.
We actually should be very worried about this.
we should be. news is slanted to make you feel, not think. stories on both sides are riddled with calling the other side idiots and telling you why people are guilty of what they say which is based on what someone else said, not what was done.
they report on our gossip, not the story.
and this is why people flock to given sites. they support their emotional views, not tell a complete story.
fact checking is pointless and will only stoke the divide.
but this is also why Sect 230 needs to go. people need to be held accountable and this needs to be cleaned up. but how do you do that to a "free press"?
when they were slamming the black doctor last week (demon sperm lady) never once did the daily beast make a direct reference to any claim they made. I call bullshit, people say I am defending her.
not at all. I'm calling bullshit when a "news" story doesn't cute their points of reference.
I then did something and found something truly scary. most of these other sites are simply signal repeaters.
go to daily beast and find their main story. copy 1st paragraph and search for it in quotes. you'll see that same story on a hundred other sites that simply say "as reported by the daily beast."
nothing like having 1 story on a hundred sites to make it look more credible, huh?
when a story relies on you getting emotional, it's a hack job. blog or editorial at best. the problem is so few write news and so many write opinions.
We then post those opinions in here as fact and the fun begins.
we all have a lot of growing up to do.
Well said. What you say about the Daily Beast, I have noticed elsewhere as well, like Brietbart, all coming back to one source that is usually questionable and can't be verified elsewhere.
So...is there a legal difference between those who publish news and those who spread news? Like platforms and publishers in big tech?
also - lets use this as platform vs publisher because there *is* a difference.
*all* of these media sites are "Publishers". this is why you don't see social media in the bias chart. but if you did, where do you think they would fall? i'd say hard left. given the #'s of reach they have, that's a shit ton of people they impact with their "fake news" tags and "fact checks".
now - how come someone who is *not* a news agency can validate / create news without the responsibility each and every one of those publishers has?
Sect 230 is being seriously abused.
A platform by design, law and nature allows you to get work done. you code your programs on the Java, C++ platform, you post in here on the zenforo platform. a platform allows you to get things done but has zero control or authority of what you choose to do on it. that is Sect 230 protection.
it means someone can post some crazy ass shit here on your platform (and i do, sorry about that) and you are not responsible for it. you're just the platform i posted on. it also means since you are not responsible, you don't have to delete it out of fear of legal recourse. S230 was meant to stop censorship or the deleting / correcting of posts.
a publisher now must be accountable for what they post. however, *most* these days do it in very vague terms.
1. according to sources
2. this source said that
3. and you can see why that person is evil
and they lead you along. but at this point it's not supposed to be news but an editorial and clearly listed as such. editorials were usually a major opinion piece from a news source but today, they're a vast majority of what people call "news" and unfortunately, it's not news.
to add to this, we have sites like "the daily beast" that will write up a bucket of shit, make up a lot of accusations and while inflammatory statements and then say "and we found that way over there in that ocean of shit" for a reference in case called on it.
much like asking where mueller said trump was guilty and you get "its in his report" - very vague because they know it's not really there and so few will take the time to go on a scavenger hunt when there will be no way to link what they find to the person who made the statement.
we *all* need to call *any news site* on this crap.
SO -
now that social media is fact checking and publishing their own version of news and history, they are abusing "platform" status of not having to check posts and giving that right to themselves. i post something from a site they don't like - FACT CHECK and gray it out or simply delete it. now you may well like it when it helps you emotionally. we all like to feel vindicated.
but these days, we're seeing the cost of that vindication. if we keep at it, only trusting news that justifies our emotions, it's going to get worse. we're going to allow things like deleting counter thought because that is the next logical step.
and that is what facebook, twitter, google and others are doing with our social media. they are taking the protection of their former platform status and putting it to their publisher ambitions and daring people to do shit about it.
as long as you're emotionally tied to the left, you are likely ok with it. but there always comes a day what you say, feel and in the end, want that will be erased because society finds it of no value to "society" that day.
so when you say there is no real left media bias, i ask you to look back at that chart i provided that names all the publishers and how they lean.
now think of those feeder sites pushing the bullshit from either side so it LOOKS like a lot more.
now get on social media with it.
the right doesn't stand a chance with the censorship going on that only allows left based thought to occur and punishes anything else.
social media is the biggest amplifier of any message out there. you posted your disgust that most people get their news off of facebook. i agree. it's a sad state of affairs.
but since we agree that most people get their news off facebook and social media, and i *hope* we can agree that social media is in fact left based, then yes there is a major bias to the left in our "media".