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Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

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Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#181
post #170
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America's notion of freedom of speech was designed at time when we thought humans would prefer truth over "truthiness". Turns out none of that was true, or only true for a small subset of the population. No other country runs with our rules of "freedom of speech == freedom of consequences" (particularly for the rich). But then, most of the West is running into similar problems with the news. Not sure there is an easy…

Not designed: emerged. Our notions of free speech emerged in a world where publishing was under British law a licensed industry, and the operation of an illegal printing press was a crime which could be punished, where there were parts of the New World where the only legal printing the press could be used for was for the Bible and where there were other parts of the New World where the British Crown retained the righ…

I am not sure we disagree, as I proposed no solution.

I certainly wouldn't trust or give politicians the ability to censor what they don't like.

As I said, this is a hard problem. No individual should be censored. But, as with most things, scale is a problem in of itself. There is a significant scale difference when I, as an individual, say whatever I want, vs when CNN or FOX (or pick whatever large scaled publisher you want) broadcasts falsehoods to everyone for their profit. There is significant profit in anger, fear, sowing divisions, artificial controversy; but this comes at a large detriment to us as a society.

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#182
post #181
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not designed: emerged. Our notions of free speech emerged in a world where publishing was under British law a licensed industry, and the operation of an illegal printing press was a crime which could be punished, where there were parts of the New World where the only legal printing the press could be used for was for the Bible and where there were other parts of the New World where the British Crown retained the righ…

I am not sure we disagree, as I proposed no solution. I certainly wouldn't trust or give politicians the ability to censor what they don't like. As I said, this is a hard problem. No individual should be censored. But, as with most things, scale is a problem in of itself. There is a significant scale difference when I, as an individual, say whatever I want, vs when CNN or FOX (or pick whatever large scaled publisher…

> I am not sure we disagree, as I proposed no solution.

That’s embarrassing. I actually did overstate the disagreement upon re-reading your prior comment. My apologies.

> There is a significant scale difference when I, as an individual, say whatever I want, vs when CNN or FOX (or pick whatever large scaled publisher you want) broadcasts falsehoods to everyone for their profit.

Even CNN and Fox can be held in check for literally lying, but by the people they’re lying about, and in turn they operate in a space where they report on a more powerful entity than themselves when they lie or subvert the truth. The American government is also a player in the information space, and its chief officials are not always telling the truth, or disclosing the full truth. So what we have is a wash in which information competes with information, and we don’t always have good, accurate or useful information where we need it or desire it. I still wouldn’t call this a market failure, people profit and lose off of good or bad information all the time; it’s when we allow ourselves to become tools for moneyed or empowered interests who use those programs and writings to induce action that we experience a very real human or political failure.

The purpose of the news industry is to inform, but it has always and will forever be at the behest of people with an interest in informing in a manner they prioritize in competition with other people with differing interests, and it is itself for-profit industry whether or not the profits are expressed on the P&L of a given corporation.

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#183
post #4

The single biggest problem with America today is the presentation and consumption of national news, political commentary and public policy as entertainment. The media has figured out that America is the ultimate reality TV show and they present it as such. Cable TV and the internet are to blame for this. I don't know what could be done about it. But we'd be way better off if "the news" was something you could watch f…

True facts.

And when entertainment isn't recharging our souls, giving us time off, isn't wholesome (which all apply to current news) we don't get what our souls need, and we become worse people individually and collectively.

Watching the 24 hour news cycle as entertainment is just like any kind of constant trauma, constant onslaught, constant conflict and it fundamentally is rewiring our brains individually and collectively

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#184

I wish I had local news. For example if there's a crazy mom trying to get on the school board. Or my local towing company is owned by a person undergoing felony indictment. New businesses opening that could really use my dollars. My local shop had a 4 for 5$ sale for kombucha and I nearly missed out on it due to a lack of local news. I really don't want to know what is happening to youth in a country that is very far…

Hate to say it but it just sounds like you're looking for the neighbourhood Facebook group.

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you consider newspapers as long form? (I certainly never have.)

I was more reflecting on newspapers not being mentioned at all as a news source. ABC World News Tonight, This Week, and Frontline are all TV sources, and Time Magazine is a pretty different beast. Back in the day newspapers and radio were pretty significant news sources for people (and radio still is). I don't know if I'd call newspapers long form, as they certainly have lots of short articles, but I'd say they regul…

Certainly a fair number of people got daily newspapers at one point. Post-uni, I never actually lived especially near a city and never felt the need to subscribe to the (in my case) Boston Globe which wasn't especially relevant to my day-to-day life. (To this day I don't although I do subscribe digitally to the NYT and the Economist.)

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#187
If I try to read the front page of any news website (as opposed to an aggregator like this website) I get the feeling like someone is trying to sell me a product or convince me of something. I think it is the commanding tone of headlines these days. I am probably just crazy.

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#188
post #4

The single biggest problem with America today is the presentation and consumption of national news, political commentary and public policy as entertainment. The media has figured out that America is the ultimate reality TV show and they present it as such. Cable TV and the internet are to blame for this. I don't know what could be done about it. But we'd be way better off if "the news" was something you could watch f…

>I don't know what could be done about it.

How about reinstating the fairness doctrine that changed (along with so much else) in the 1980s as a start? And creating some rules to prevent news sources from being used as propaganda machines by billionaires?

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#189
Its just the oversaturation that we have at this point. You are bombarded every minute by something “new”.

People are getting tired, and so am I. I used to check my local and intl news sites a few times every hour but its just a waste of time to be honest.

The same news will be available at a later stage, if its important enough. I have just blocked the news sites on my work pc for good and it has really helped me.

Re: Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

#190
post #105

I avoid the news because it’s often wrong (and I don’t necessarily blame them, because they are reporting with incomplete information as it appears). I find that it’s much more productive to just ask “what happened 2 weeks ago?”. All the unverified trash gets filtered out at that point. All the outrage bait has simmered down.

Does such an “after the fact” news outlet exist?
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