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Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

fortune.com

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Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#161

Post by talkingtab »

This is really simple. Media are now in the service of advertisers. Or more specifically of people who are willing to spend money to target particular people. For example, the NYT targets the wealthy, which is why they frequently have stories about "how much will $900,000 buy in a home"? By targeting the wealthy, the NYT and other media present a view of the world that is very much at odds with the way many if not most Americans experience the world.

There is another set of media that sells access to the "less well off" in America. Here's looking at you fox. It is hard to call them media because what they do is foster outrage and sell that. This audience is targeted by those with political agendas.

Who pays for your media determines how you see the world and what you see of the world. Period.

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#162

Post by michaelt »

m463 wrote: post #120
bigger_inside wrote: post #47

There are literal mountains of sociological studies on how (state and corporate) media have been in service of the powers that be, for decades, and how exactly this works. With a mountain of examples. So, for sociologists, this feels like "wow, it only took half a century to trickle through." Though of course this is the wrong reaction; it has always trickled through. Only that, in the past, it took a few years or de…

> it took a few years or decades to be come publicized knowledge So that makes me wonder how this is getting out. Is it a news organization such as an opposing organization, or outspoken journalists? Is it democratized news reporting via forums and social media?

> So that makes me wonder how this is getting out.

Hasn't Trump been talking about the 'fake news media' for 5+ years? And don't half of Americans lap that stuff up?

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#163

Post by WaitWaitWha »

soco wrote: post #110
dotnet00 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it takes much rational thought to realize that the news are incompetent at worst and intentionally misleading at best. Even without validating beliefs, there are so many cases of news organizations publishing incorrect or misleading information in a rush to cover a story, only to then issue a silent correction weeks later when the damage has been done. This weakens trust in two ways, first is just peopl…

Data set of one, but the people I met claiming they don't trust the news, all take their news from youtube and random taxi drivers. This doesn't say anything about the news outlets, just about those people and their peculiar ways to "think for themselves".

I have a different take on this.

Unless I am asking the taxi driver about traffic problem in their work area, or rider behavior, or...

We have become citizen journalists. We have to research our own news. I think that is not a bad thing.

I write journalist because if an establishment journalist can get away with single-sourcing something, why can't I?

YouTube is a cesspool of hot garbage, but there is also plenty of good information.

The key part in my opinion is to have the ability to collect, sift, confirm, and then make deduction.

Alas, we no longer teach fundamental thinking skills in schools.

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#164

Post by oneoff786 »

talkingtab wrote: post #161

This is really simple. Media are now in the service of advertisers. Or more specifically of people who are willing to spend money to target particular people. For example, the NYT targets the wealthy, which is why they frequently have stories about "how much will $900,000 buy in a home"? By targeting the wealthy, the NYT and other media present a view of the world that is very much at odds with the way many if not mo…

Fox is generally more popular among the very wealthy in the business world

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#165

Post by localplume »

nivenkos wrote: post #16

They do. The only real investigative journalists these days - Edward Snowden and Julian Assange - face life in prison and exile. Even Seymour Hersh has been smeared to discredit him now he dared speak against the establishment. It is not journalists' role to be a mouthpiece for the government, but to challenge it.

[dead]

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#167

Post by lockhouse »

michaelt wrote: post #162
m463 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it took a few years or decades to be come publicized knowledge So that makes me wonder how this is getting out. Is it a news organization such as an opposing organization, or outspoken journalists? Is it democratized news reporting via forums and social media?

> So that makes me wonder how this is getting out. Hasn't Trump been talking about the 'fake news media' for 5+ years? And don't half of Americans lap that stuff up?

Is he wrong about this particular issue though?

I know broken clocks and all, but just because you disagree with someone most of the time it doesn't mean that they are wrong about everything.

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#168

Post by ErikCorry »

pessimizer wrote: post #147
ErikCorry wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare Seymour Hersh's codswallop on the Skripal affair with the excellent work done by Bellingcat. It's clear that in this case the mainstream media got it mostly right and Hersh made a dog's breakfast of it. This colours my attitude to his Nordstream "revelations".

> Compare Seymour Hersh's codswallop on the Skripal affair with the excellent work done by Bellingcat. Done. Bellingcat exists as a parallel construction for US and British intelligence agencies and its only other purpose is to smear non-state controlled journalistic outlets. There was a leaked email from another source that indicates that even internally, US intelligence agencies don't think that Bellingcat is still…

You didn't engage with the truth of their respective Skripal affair output at all.

I could have mentioned Hersh's account of the killing of Bin Laden too. At this point his track record is a lot longer than it is good. I can't keep giving him free passes based on good work done almost 50 years ago

Re: Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

#170

Post by brookst »

dotnet00 wrote: post #90
brookst wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody believes in perfectly objectively reporting. This is more about the rising belief that there is a massive conspiracy by them (the liberals, the Jews, the military industrial complex, the star chamber, take your pick) to systematically distort news in a coordinated way so as to realize their plans for world domination / genocide / fascism / destroying the family (circle one).

I don't think those conspiracies are what are driving this kind of distrust. In my experience, the most common belief on that end is simply that the reporting is meant to keep people too busy bickering over meaningless issues (in the sense that the bickering itself won't accomplish anything of substance) to prevent them from actually organizing and acting against real problems which would be inconvenient for those wh…

But “meant to” by whom?

The tens of thousands of reporters, mostly young liberal arts majors?

It’s the “meant to” that makes it a conspiracy theory. Tell me that news is unhealthy, or that each individual actor has self interest in promoting some agenda, and I think it’s an interesting topic.

But as soon as there is a person or group out there secretly “meaning for” some result from the actions of tens of thousands of people, that’s by definition a conspiracy.

I think it’s just human nature. We are wired to believe that “there must be some explanation”, and it’s easy to lean into a sentient God or an evil cabal.

IMO the truth, that it’s a runaway uncoordinated emergent behavior with thousands of actors pushing and pulling in different directions for their own reasons, is a lot scarier.

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