Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

washingtonmonthly.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 233 posts

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#131

Post by ipaddr »

slg wrote: post #123
imwillofficial wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If you don’t take money from companies you have a conflict of interest with, it’s dangerous! Think of the children!” I’m sorry but I may have exaggerated for humorous effect, but your line of reasoning I reject outright. There are ways to do this effectually. This is not that way.

This is the New York Times we are talking about. Literally everything is within their reporting purview. Who can they possibly accept money from that won't present a potential conflict of interest?

NYT provides national coverage. By only accepting and showing regional or local ads this problem can be avoided.

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#132

Post by galangalalgol »

slg wrote: post #123
imwillofficial wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If you don’t take money from companies you have a conflict of interest with, it’s dangerous! Think of the children!” I’m sorry but I may have exaggerated for humorous effect, but your line of reasoning I reject outright. There are ways to do this effectually. This is not that way.

This is the New York Times we are talking about. Literally everything is within their reporting purview. Who can they possibly accept money from that won't present a potential conflict of interest?

Their readers and only their readers otherwise no trust should be given to their reporting. News is worth what people pay for it, and if no one is willing to pay for it then we won't get any real reporting.

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#134

Post by slg »

ipaddr wrote: post #125
slg wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The core conflict here isn't new, surely. Newspapers have taken advertising money from news-making companies since time immaterial. And if you can find a viable alternative to this, your company will be worth hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars[1]. The internet has killed the classifieds business and commoditized news to the point that most people won't pay for it. Accepting advertising from potentially…

The internet destroyed newspapers ability to milk classified ads so we should look the other way when journals get in bed with the newsmakers? Wait until we have overwhelming proof because the system isn't working? But things are working for the Times not so much for regional players. How does this help us?

>Wait until we have overwhelming proof because the system isn't working?

Where did that word "overwhelming" come from? I want us to wait until there is any proof rather than screaming "WOLF!" at a mere shadow. I will highlight this from the originally linked article:

>There’s no evidence that the deal directly affects coverage in either the news or editorial departments.

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#135

Post by corpMaverick »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #95
corpMaverick wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I would like to have Netflix for news. Pay $10 a month. And have access to NYT, NPR, The Economist et al. I want it to be easy to sign in and out.

I would also like everything to be cheaper. With password managers, it’s not that much work to visit multiple websites.

> I would also like everything to be cheaper.

The point is that with "Netfilx for news" you increase the number of people paying. Thus decreasing cost for the individuals.

> With password managers, it’s not that much work to visit multiple websites.

It is not just about managing logins. You also have to manage payments. And make the decisions about what you want to read months in advance. People hate making decisions. A lot of people end up jumping over the fence and not paying at all.

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#136

Post by lupire »

galangalalgol wrote: post #132
slg wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the New York Times we are talking about. Literally everything is within their reporting purview. Who can they possibly accept money from that won't present a potential conflict of interest?

Their readers and only their readers otherwise no trust should be given to their reporting. News is worth what people pay for it, and if no one is willing to pay for it then we won't get any real reporting.

Sounds you have beef with the readers for not paying enough, and with non-readers who freeload off investigative journalism's social benefits, and with and plagiarizers like Business Insider. Has a major paper ever not been ad-supported?

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#137

Post by op03 »

afavour wrote: post #32

> There’s no evidence that the deal directly affects coverage in either the news or editorial departments. Before the Facebook News deal, the Times famously published an op-ed titled “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook,” by Chris Hughes, a cofounder of Facebook turned critic. And since the deal, columns from Tim Wu and Kara Swisher, among others, have been similarly critical. In December, the editorial board welcomed a l…

The AP's NORC Center for Public Affairs Research recent report on Trust in American Media shows no one gives a fig what the NYT thinks, especially what its critical of - https://apnorc.org/projects/a-new-way-of-looking-at-trust-in...

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#138

Post by bogomipz »

afavour wrote: post #32

> There’s no evidence that the deal directly affects coverage in either the news or editorial departments. Before the Facebook News deal, the Times famously published an op-ed titled “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook,” by Chris Hughes, a cofounder of Facebook turned critic. And since the deal, columns from Tim Wu and Kara Swisher, among others, have been similarly critical. In December, the editorial board welcomed a l…

>"And since the deal, columns from Tim Wu and Kara Swisher ..."

Those two individuals are both Op-Ed writers. The Opinion section in a paper is not the same as regular news reporting and so not beholden to a newspaper's editorial policy.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#139

Post by slg »

ipaddr wrote: post #131
slg wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the New York Times we are talking about. Literally everything is within their reporting purview. Who can they possibly accept money from that won't present a potential conflict of interest?

NYT provides national coverage. By only accepting and showing regional or local ads this problem can be avoided.

National stories are also often regional and local stories. I just pulled up the NYT website. The top story is the Derek Chauvin trial which is certainly also a local story in Minneapolis. The second from the top Opinion piece is about the NYC mayoral race. Does that mean that NYT shouldn't be able to accept any advertising dollars from those markets?

Re: Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations

#140

Post by phpnode »

phpnode wrote: post #122
tome wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tome's law strikes again! "In any discussion about an article whose title is a question, Betteridge's law is mentioned with probability 1." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24545238

I'm so sorry tome, but this is actually the Fourth Law of Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4722251 This predates tome's law by 3 years.

The Twelfth Law Of Hacker News: Any reference to Betteridge's Law will have at least one reply referring to the unreliability of Betteridge's Law.
Post reply on HN