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Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

taibbi.substack.com

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Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#91

Post by 0xDEFC0DE »

vowelless wrote: post #9

I wanted to dislike this piece. But it’s a fantastic write up. It covers all the bases I was anticipating that it won’t. The HN community might find this interesting: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews

All respect to Aaron's memory, but it hasn't aged that well. There's an implicit trust in books for authority, but those have been used on both sides of the Trump press war for political reasons. News is how you find out the candidate you might want to vote for is actually a hypocrite through undeniable audio/video evidence. By the time a book is written, printed, and distributed, most elections will have likely been decided already (except for Presidential election activities which seem to never end these days). You can't just bury your head in the sand on this but there are no good alternatives yet.

I still think I'm going to follow that prescription though: establishing trust has become even more difficult as fake accounts can establish a thin authority by pretending to trust each other. Information complexity and volume has only gone up and there is more information to digest, and establishing someone as a trustworthy source by yourself is time consuming.

The only way this changes is a) humans manage electronic volume/complexity more easily (enhanced brain and more available time) or b) by coincidence we happen to get news sources that are all unbiased and social media platforms with good moderation. (a) is far more likely IMHO.

It's going to be a hell of a ride if there's nothing more in Mueller's report. And yeah, I'm exhausted. I'm giving up my news habits either way it goes.

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#92

Post by newnewpdro »

I've been saying for quite some time that the media has been making it quite certain this embarassment of a president will be reelected when Mueller comes up empty.

The religious voters will come out in droves to vote for him based on guilt alone for society having dragged his now irrefutably innocent name through the muck all these years. The poor man!

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#93

Post by jayd16 »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #13

Disclosure: I deeply loathe Trump, and I think he is unfit for office; very glad to see Mueller investigation initiated, because there was a lot of smoke and it needed to happen. But the author is very correct. A 'free press' is the 5th estate - an important part of civil society. ... but it only works if they have integrity. Over the last two years it has become clear how narrow and biased they have become in their…

I disagree. The Trump administration has done everything from secretly meet in Trump tower with Russian officials and lie about it to firing the head of the FBI because of the Russian investigation.

In my mind, these two acts alone have warranted the last two years of coverage and investigation.

Simply imagine a world where these things were ignored. How untrustworthy would the press seem then?

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#94

Post by abrahamepton »

roenxi wrote: post #46
abrahamepton wrote: post #15

This is...utterly delusional, and totally disconnected from the evidence on record. The President's campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, personal lawyer and National Security Advisor have either pled guilty or been convicted of felonies. Despite denying any contacts with Russia, we now know he'd been offered a deal to build the biggest tower in Europe, a payout worth $300 million, during the campaign. During th…

> his son-in-law met with the Russian ambassador and asked to use the Russian government's communication system to evade scrutiny by the American intelligence community I'm just going to attack the weakest part of your post because it is egregious. I disagree with the rest to, but I think other comments do a good enough job of covering my points. There is overwhelming evidence that Trump sees part of his job as being…

[flagged]

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#95

Post by jtbayly »

jayd16 wrote: post #93
sonnyblarney wrote: post #13

Disclosure: I deeply loathe Trump, and I think he is unfit for office; very glad to see Mueller investigation initiated, because there was a lot of smoke and it needed to happen. But the author is very correct. A 'free press' is the 5th estate - an important part of civil society. ... but it only works if they have integrity. Over the last two years it has become clear how narrow and biased they have become in their…

I disagree. The Trump administration has done everything from secretly meet in Trump tower with Russian officials and lie about it to firing the head of the FBI because of the Russian investigation. In my mind, these two acts alone have warranted the last two years of coverage and investigation. Simply imagine a world where these things were ignored. How untrustworthy would the press seem then?

Ignoring it is one thing. Practically promising collusion is another thing entirely.

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#96

Post by kodz4 »

abrahamepton wrote: post #15

This is...utterly delusional, and totally disconnected from the evidence on record. The President's campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, personal lawyer and National Security Advisor have either pled guilty or been convicted of felonies. Despite denying any contacts with Russia, we now know he'd been offered a deal to build the biggest tower in Europe, a payout worth $300 million, during the campaign. During th…

There is no 'perhaps' about the media's outrage factory.

It distracts, causes unnecessary polarization and most importantly takes focus away from much bigger underlying issues - why voters turned to Trump, how to connect with them, the broken advertising/click/view maximizing model, campaign finance reform etc.

Taibbi is asking the important question of how is focus going to get back to the real stuff, when outrage and emotion and blame are the only tools being used?

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#98

Post by abrahamepton »

areoform wrote: post #23

It is bizarre when an opinion piece on the death of the American news media, makes the same mistakes as the news media i.e. blending facts and opinion as one and treating editorials as news. For E.g. “There will be people protesting: the Mueller report doesn’t prove anything! What about the 37 indictments? The convictions? The Trump tower revelations? The lies! The meeting with Don, Jr.? The financial matters! There’…

It is very odd and telling that this is the comment that gets downvoted on this thread, while all the deep-state ravings get upvotes.

What is happening to HN?

Re: Russiagate is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media

#100

Post by abrahamepton »

lamarpye wrote: post #36
akhilcacharya wrote: post #17

>For years, every pundit and Democratic pol in Washington hyped every new Russia headline like the Watergate break-in. Now, even Nancy Pelosi has said impeachment is out, unless something “so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan” against Trump is uncovered it would be worth their political trouble to prosecut Genuinely confused - is it not worse than Watergate? At least Watergate was done by Americans. The Muel…

It is worse than Watergate. The FBI spied on a Presidential campaign using evidence supplied and paid for by the another candidate. If the names were changed, Hacker News people would be outraged. They would be mad at the FISA court, mad at the FBI, mad at the media. Look in the mirror and decide, do you have consistent principles or do they own apply in certain situations.

Multiple senior members of a Presidential campaign have either pled guilty or been convicted of serious felonies, and you think the ones to blame are the FBI?

I mean I think the FBI has a lot to answer for, here and on plenty of other issues, but...

I don't know how to tell you this, because you won't believe it, but if you're sincere and not a troll then you have a very unhealthy media diet. Your take here is very disconnected from reality.

I'm sure you disagree. Alas.

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