When you realize all the news outlets are owned by billionaires it kind of makes sense
They really are, I went through a lot of them to find out who owns them. I maybe stopped too early, but it was getting depressing. Reuters? Owned by a billionaire Canadian family. NYT? A huge portion controlled by the same family since the 1800’s even though it’s publicly traded. Our news needs to be sanitized and brought back to old timey journalism.
“Old timey journalism” was usually when someone with a political axe to grind started a local newspaper to try and counter the other guy who had started a newspaper. That’s when you get editorialism and a particular slant on your news.
You probably want something like large public-funded-but-relatively-neutral news agencies, who have the resources, time, and budget to allow proper investigative journalism to take it’s full course, and are large enough that they don’t have to pander to the politicians of the day or big business.
So we’re talking at this point about BBC, ABC (Australia), Al-Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, and other similar organisations.
None are without bias - it’s very difficult to actually be bias-free, most will have a home country bias, for example. But they’re better than the billionaire’s media circus.
You’re absolutely correct, we need a form of the fairness doctrine back and a break up of all media conglomerates.
The appeal of state media is that the bias is obvious.
We know who’s paying the bills at the CBC or Xinhua, but it’s gonna be a lot more subtle for the local broadcaster who mysteriously drops their investigative series right after the target buys a premium ad package.
It also means you can triangulate. If the BBC and TASS both report the same details on a story, those are probably legit.
This has a Ryan George (Pitch Meeting) written all over it
News: here are STARTLING MORTALITY RATES that you definitely did NOT ask for while you wait for the weather that we definitely promise is coming! But first a word from our sponsor
User: you’re right I really didn’t ask for th—
Ad: “HI HELLO THERE I’m the pharma ad – THIS COULD (possibly) KILL YOU!”
User: oh god why would I want that? –
Ad: So you won’t be depressed ya silly goose!"
User: [Gestures to “News”] these people give you… Money?..-
News: Yeeah yeeah yeah yeah!
News: enjoy watching it every break until you actually feel depressed! *ARE YOU SAD YET??
User: when are you going to get to that segment that you keep teasing over and over which is very effectively keeping me in engaged on your platform?
News: heyshutup HERE’S THE SAME AD AGAIN!
Yeah, I automatically read the whole post in his voice. Exactly the same energy.
HELLO I’M AN ANGRY PUNDIT AND I’M GOING TO DISAGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY BECAUSE YOUR FARTS SMELL
HELLO I’M ALSO AN ANGRY PUNDIT AND WILL NOT LET YOU GET A SINGLE WORD IN BECAUSE I AM RIGHT AND YOU ARE A POOPY HEAD
news: absolute perfection!
Oh, my god!
Holy shit he did
Negative news has a greater impact on people than positive: https://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71516.pdf
Media sites know this, and use it to drive engagement:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01538-4
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/social-media-facebook-twitter-politics-b1870628.html
And so, negative headlines are getting worse: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276367
But negative news is addictive and psychologically damaging: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-worry/202009/the-psychological-impact-negative-news
So it’s important to try and stay positive:
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/benefits-of-good-news
If you want a break from the constant negativity, here are some sites that report specifically on positive news:
Remember, realistic optimism is important and, unlike what some might have you believe, is not the same as blissful ignorance or ‘burying your head in the sand’: https://www.learning-mind.com/realistic-optimism-blind-positivity/
https://www.centreforoptimism.com/realisticoptimism
And doesn’t mean you must stay uninformed on current affairs: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-stop-doom-scrolling
https://goodable.co/blog/tips-for-balancing-positive-and-negative-news/
This is awesome and could be its own post!
Thanks! 👍
There are certainly problems with the state of journalism, but anyone who tries to “view the news as a person” will be as woefully uninformed as those who try to “run government like a business.”
The “state of journalism” is that it’s many miles down the mineshaft of capitalism and the only way out is to try to monetize crowdfunding.
BBC is (was) the opposite and have their own issues, but in general I think we can agree they’re ahead of the US journalism framework.
They got so much worse under the Tories in recent years though.
True. But then everything did.
Capitalists flip flop between motivating with fear, and scaring the working class into paralysis with fear as well. Fear of losing your job; fear of your neighbor; fear of other countries; it’s all just fear. Bad news also draws people in and gets clicks and views.
Again, kind of a point for NPR given at least they do have an expert talk for like, 3 to 15 (or longer for some specially podcasts) and never angry. Less or no ads, although they still have sponsors. Plus if it’s really grim, they give a content warning (although it’s not like they show snuff videos like cable news does).
Also local news affiliates, they fill time with silly fluff like how a bake off is going or local pet adoptions. But that still has the ads.
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You … DO realize the news CHOOSES to cover things like this… don’t you?
Not so - let’s pretend Anthropology 101 is a person.
It . . . it sounds like a teacher.
Okay, let’s pretend a grassroots advocacy group is a person
It sounds like someone really concerned about [homelessness, food insecurity, etc.]
Only news is so untouchable and overwhelmingly depressive.
me: picking imaginary fights with made up enemies is toxic
some jerk: no it doesn’t!
There’s plenty of news out there that is rational and factual. It’s boring however and you refuse to go find it. So keep only taking in the major mainstream outlets and complaining about it.
Please, let me know where? I am a terrible googler and I need the help. Please help me find the rational, factual news.
This question is direct to op. Of course, if you have suggestions, okay, but I am specifically interested in which ones op meant.
you forgot to say what it is
It’s just more of the regular biased shit, but it agrees with their pre-existing biases so it’s all good.
There is no one. I always find it when I read stories and notice there’s no added commentary or fluff. Usually it comes from news sources based in other countries that I think don’t have a horse in the race of the country being reported. Other times going straight to things like PBS or AP bypasses the added flair or missing context more mainstream sources would push.
If nothing else, The Onion is pretty damn good.
/s
I absolutely agree with the “news” person until half way.
Reporting what has happened isn’t toxic it’s news. That’s their entire job.
Getting stuck on repeat about the same thing, might be toxic though. Since it’s no longer news.
Another thing is the “experts on both sides”. This is a poison of the mind, to believe that right and left wing politics are both equally valid and correct. Most of the time the science agrees with the left.
there is such s thing as solutions journalism, but it is rather rare
yeah, people think that feeding into our reactionary side for views is something new, but television has been corrupting us since long before the internet.
i remember these stickers in the 90’s… they used to be everywhere, especially in the subcultures like the punk/rave/hippie/skater scene:
“KILL YOUR TV”
i’m glad someone was looking out for me. killing that thing definitely made me a better person.
Https://dw.com is the best one I found
Or https://bbc.com is still better than commercial news
The BBC tries to both sides of human rights issues.
“Do trans people deserve to use the bathtoom in peace? We’ve invited a trans woman from an NGO that has one several awards for human rights, and your racist Uncle from Facebook who no one invites to Thanksgiving willingly.”
The BBC can be good, but man do they hate any form of minorities that aren’t included in a status quo.
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All news is corporate bullshit, manufactured consent was a warning and media used it to market themselves to the governments of the world.
No news has the public as something to tell the truth to, only to sell to advertisers.
