Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script • Hacker News Board

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#201

Post by digitaltrees » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

creaghpatr wrote: post #181

digitaltrees wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a more insidious problem than any one media property because the very structure of the local news organization -being small and distributed - gives them a unique credibility for most viewers because they assume that their local news team is more closely align with their local beliefs, values, and interests. People do not assume every word from a local news anchor is the exact script for the entire country. Fu…

>I have never seen that message on CNN Give me a break. You don't remember "This an Apple", one of the most elitist, pretentious advertising campaigns in recent times: ""This is an apple. Some people might try to tell you that it's a banana. They might scream, 'Banana, banana, banana,' over and over and over again. They might put banana in all caps. You might even start to believe it's a banana, but it's not. This is…

Fair point. I have never seen this add campaign.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#202

Post by bradleyankrom » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #191

bradleyankrom wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ds were gonna give him ALL of the border wall money that he wanted - like $25B - and he still backed out.

The funding in that bill was over 10 years, with very little up front. It was also missing key immigration reforms that Trump said he needed to see. He is pretty clear about what he wants to see, and I’m pretty sure that he sees no deal as better than a bad deal. He’d rather keep the issue in play through mid-terms, or collect some additional policy points (gun control?) that he can throw in the mix to ultimately cra…

> He is pretty clear about what he wants to see

Going to have to disagree on that. At best, his policy positions can be described as tenuous... more typically, amorphous.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#203

Post by bradleyankrom » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:12 PM UTC

creaghpatr wrote: post #111

bradleyankrom wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think very many left-of-center people would agree with your assertion that it was a "huge" compromise. They wanted tens of billions of dollars for a symbolic wall, closing of several legal immigration processes, etc. There are several DACA fixes sitting in congress but Republican leadership refuses to bring any of them up for a vote.

>They wanted tens of billions of dollars for a symbolic wall In fact the wall would have been physical, rather than 'symbolic'

yes, I meant that the wall will physically exist but it's more of a symbol - a KEEP OUT sign of sorts - than an effective tool for border security... or at least not a cost-effective tool.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#204

Post by larkost » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #159

wanderer2323 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not derailing, you are trying to split hairs to stifle discussion. Global media is pretty clearly biased against the current administration. It seems that Sinclair is the asymmetrical response. Discussing them in the larger context of the US news is completely valid.

It's hilarious. Just like Facebook privacy issues only blew up when it might have benefited Trump, but it was fine when Obama used that data (on a much larger scale), it's funny that NYT is suddenly paying attention to this coordinated reporting campaign when they and the national TV media parrot Media Matters all day, every day. It's easy to find a dozen examples of national TV talking heads all using the same phras…

The data that the Obama campaign used, and the one that the Trump campaign may have used (it is clear they had it, unclear that they used it) were very different both in collection and in scope. The Obama campaign asked supporters which of their FaceBook contacts they thought were likely to be receptive to messages from the team, and only collected the FaceBook handles. The information shared with the Trump campaign was collected (not by the Trump campaign) was far more reaching than just the FaceBook name, including a lot of personal information both about the people who installed the "personality test" app, and the personal information of all of their FaceBook "friends".

Trying to equate these two is just not honest.

Separately I would expect the same phrasing and vocabulary to emerge in the media. They are all talking to the same general pool of sources, and listening to each other. What I do not expect (and smacks of authoritarianism) is for them to all be reading from the exact same script.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#205

Post by thesis » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

creaghpatr wrote: post #172

wanderer2323 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>CNN is not dictating what its personnel report this is incredibly naive. >it's certainly not coordinating forced fake "reporting" CNN itself may not be the coordination center, but leftist media does coordinate its reporting, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList

Not to mention rigging the presidential debates by providing the questions ahead of time to its chosen campaign.

Replying to Bud on this one... I would certainly do better on my midterms if I know all the questions first.

Just because you've covered the material doesn't mean there's not a distinct advantage in knowing the questions ahead of time.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#206

Post by rlindgren » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

analogmemory wrote: post #94

Last Week Tonight (John Oliver) dove into this last year. It's really frustrating that they can leverage so much political sway under the cover of "news reporting". Then forcing news stations to broadcast this garbage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc

"👎" to the John Oliver reference. His "reporting" is as biased as it gets. His show is written in a style that convinces the subconscious to accept presented arguments without engaging any serious logical scrutiny. Just try to remember if at any point during any of his broadcasts you actually analyzed the subject of his monologues, rather than simply furthering the thought-process that he was laying out for you. Chances are that you never have because it's written to be persuasive (obviously) and only incidentally informative. Sadly, I know this is precisely what many people now believe "journalism" to be...

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#207

Post by rglover » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Nothing new. I worked in a newsroom as an intern and most major news stations rely (maybe, relied, it's been a few years) on a tool like ENPS. It's made by the Associated Press and has a "wire" feature where new stories come into. So, e.g., if there was a plane crash, that message would be pushed out to all newsrooms that rely on ENPS.

The news producers were lazy, too. They'd literally take the script that ENPS pushes out, tweak a few words, and put it on air. I was working in a minor midwestern market (Toledo, Ohio). If you watched the evening broadcasts in the same market and nationally, you'd frequently see the same stories and similar verbiage popping up.

Being surprised by a broadcast group like Sinclair was forcing a narrative is like being surprised that the sky is blue. The "news" is highly filtered and easily controlled. To think otherwise is deliberate ignorance.

The broadcasting industry is corrupt and untrustworthy as all hell. My father worked in it at a high level (owning licenses and stations) and he'd frequently come home from trips either stone faced or frustrated beyond belief: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/business/media/22spectrum... (he's the stately looking black fella throwing a fit in this piece).

To trust anything the mass media tells you is to severely handicap your intelligence. Unfortunately, large swats of the general public do exactly that.

/rant

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#208

Post by fmihaila » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

meri_dian wrote: post #113

dguaraglia wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for one: CNN isn't getting a sweet new FCC head honcho to shape policy to benefit them. Second: do you understand the difference between a free press and a propaganda machine, right? One goes against the government's views, the other one pushes it.

"One goes against the government's views, the other one pushes it." No, that's not it. A free press is "free" because it's unconstrained by a Government or capricious regulation, not because it "goes against the government's views". Sometimes members of a free press will support the government, other times they won't. It's not a priori virtuous to go against the Government's views. Sometimes the Government is right a…

> A free press is "free" because it's unconstrained by a Government or capricious regulation [...]

Add to that monopolistic corporate power.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#209

Post by korethr » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

So, this explains the creepy video I saw over the weekend, of numerous news stations reciting the same canned speech, verbatim. When I see one station doing it, or similar sentiment from multiple stations in their own words, that might slightly temper my cynicism about the (lack of) objectivity and truthfulness of the news. But when I see shit like this, it only serves to harden my cynicism.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#210

Post by creaghpatr » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Bud wrote: post #197

creaghpatr wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention rigging the presidential debates by providing the questions ahead of time to its chosen campaign.

Anyone who thinks that this "rigs" a debate in any meaningful way is watching too much Hannity. Debate questions are not some big secret surprise; the candidates drill for MONTHS on all the likely sorts of questions that could be asked. And there weren't any "gotcha" questions asked in the debate in question; just straight-up stuff that any prepared candidate could answer in his/her sleep.

You can insult my reading level all you want, I'm just the messenger.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/donna-brazile-finally-adm...