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The American Press Is Destroying Itself

taibbi.substack.com

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Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#521

Post by [deleted] »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #461
pm90 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would advise care when reading it. It’s not immediately clear but it uses very hand picked facts to paint a very different picture of what’s actually going on. I call these kinds of articles disinformation-lite; not outright lies but selectively picking events to portray a hypothetical scenario that doesn’t really hold true. I’ll cite a specific example to make this case. See this paragraph: > Cotton did not call f…

Something that Cotton also said recently on Twitter: "No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters." Literally, "no quarter" means that combatants are to be killed rather than taken prisoner. Figuratively, it means to give one's full effort to achieve an overwhelming victory. Especially with the inclusion of anarchists, it's hard to reconcile that with the idea that he really wants to cast this a…

[deleted]

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#522

Post by ssalazar »

md224 wrote: post #420
pm90 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would advise care when reading it. It’s not immediately clear but it uses very hand picked facts to paint a very different picture of what’s actually going on. I call these kinds of articles disinformation-lite; not outright lies but selectively picking events to portray a hypothetical scenario that doesn’t really hold true. I’ll cite a specific example to make this case. See this paragraph: > Cotton did not call f…

I’m a bit confused, since the section you emphasized appears to prove Taibbi’s point: Cotton called for force against “lawbreakers”, not “protestors”. You can argue that the troops would in practice end up attacking both groups, but that’s a separate question from “did Cotton suggest deploying troops to attack protestors?” If Cotton explicitly stated that all protestors were in violation of the law, then I stand corr…

> Cotton called for force against “lawbreakers”, not “protestors”

I don't care. I live in one of these so-called riot zones and my company's office was looted. I do not want active duty soldiers pointing weapons of war around my neighborhood for any reason. Especially with how municipal police forces have dealt with (and escalated) these situations. I'll not have my home treated like a failed state or enemy war zone.

How many leaders of the regions affected by the looting rallied to this call? None. How many military leaders did Cotton call upon to support his case? None. How many of those affected by the lawbreaking does Cotton represent? A vanishing fraction.

Taibbi thinks hes being clever splitting hairs but he's missed the whole point. Cotton's repugnant article was an obvious partisan hack job, a towing of the Trump line, dogwhistles included. In the NY Times' own words, the article lacked basic fact checking and did not meet the paper's editorial standards- Bennet very obviously fucked up in the loudest possible way.

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#523

Post by Tomte »

mushbino wrote: post #121
aPALKbaq wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is deeper than just the press. These identity flame wars are sponsored by almost all big (non-news) corporations. The reason is clear. While there is distraction, the real issues are unaddressed and they can keep putting their hands in your pocket when you aren't looking. Also, excessive pseudo-socialism is a great tool to drive down wages and have the whole world compete against each other. Locus…

What is "excessive pseudo socialism" and "Locust capitalism?" Also, I see your account was created an hour ago.

"Locust capitalism" seems to be a verbatim translation of German "Heuschreckenkapitalismus", which is a phrase commonly in use to describe hedge funds and other large conglomerates buying other companies without regard for social issues like workers' jobs.

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#524

Post by andreskytt »

js2 wrote: post #407
ramphastidae wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is that if not a partisan political opinion? What was partisan about what he said? He made no mention of US political parties. He simply said that the war was failing and it needed to end. May I suggest you are projecting your partisanship onto this? Objective journalism is not about giving both sides an equal voice. It is OK to use rationale and logic to support one side over the other. Should all journalism…

Okay, elide "partisan" from my comment. My point is that there was never an "objective" news that didn't fall somewhere on the left/right spectrum and which colored how that source presented the news. > Objective journalism is not about giving both sides an equal voice. It is OK to use rationale and logic to support one side over the other. I agree. But don't you think that reporters at The Atlantic and at the Nation…

You are right, all media coverage is filtered. But that filter used to be considered something to be minimized, balanced out and carefully managed

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#525

Post by ssalazar »

I have read many of Taibbi's past articles with enthusiasm and he makes some interesting arguments in the present article, but to be clear, he has an axe to grind on this very issue. He himself was essentially cancelled for some pretty indefensible and egregious "journalism" early in his career.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-two-expat-bros-wh...

Furthermore, hes engaged here in some light cherry-picking. For instance, Taibbi references a called-out UCLA professor, who is white, and whose primary offense seems to not be reading MLK's treatise but using the n-word in the process- that seems like a detail worth mentioning?

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#526

Post by dillondoyle »

DenisM wrote: post #320
dillondoyle wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing about the protests, my mom recently told me 'It is a sad fact that most of the crime is black on black' among other things that are SO frustrating that I gave up on trying to reply back. Like to me that statement is a non sequitur, and says either: that the cause of increased violence is systemic adverse conditions and outright theft of wealth/quality of life over 400 years making communities tough to succeed…

Try listening to your parents instead of educating at them.

definitely good advice

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#527

Post by jmeister »

zipwitch wrote: post #470
wherewillitlead wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the news show "Rising"? They have been staking out this space for about a year now. Taibbi and Greenwald appear there regularly. This show is probably the most interesting new development in American political media. The hosts have jokingly described their philosophy as "let's hate each other less and elites more", and present as a mostly-friendly pair of left and right populists. They were on Joe Rogan…

I can't take Taibbi and Greenwald's antagonism against "elites" seriously when they take every chance possible to defend the actions of a billionaire President and his billionaire-stuff Cabinet.

It’s their policies and actions that matter.

Looking at everything from an identity lens is a disease that has corrupted discourse in this country.

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#528

Post by yesexactly89 »

pm90 wrote: post #400
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #134

For those in the comments that haven't read the article, I highly recommend you check it out. While the comments are talking about the survival of news media and "tone-deaf" titles, the bulk of the article is about the Overton window[1] shifting to the point where rigerous journalism questioning outrages of the time is becoming untenable, weakening the news overall. It's a very good read. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org…

I would advise care when reading it. It’s not immediately clear but it uses very hand picked facts to paint a very different picture of what’s actually going on. I call these kinds of articles disinformation-lite; not outright lies but selectively picking events to portray a hypothetical scenario that doesn’t really hold true. I’ll cite a specific example to make this case. See this paragraph: > Cotton did not call f…

Using selective words to further his argument is Taibbi’s shtick as that’s “old journalism “.

He’s railing against, ultimately, the evolution of information distribution.

He’s calling the media industry recent exclusion of one journalist the end times?

Go start a YouTube channel. Someone THAT good shouldn’t need a day job.

A hundred years ago most people were self employed.

This weird bubble of human history where we all got talked into working for “financially viable” tribes is deflating.

Taibbi is ultimately sticking with what he knows, being all alarmist the world is changing and not buying into what he thinks is important anymore. He doesn’t have the same monopoly on visibility.

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#529

Post by jgable »

Animats wrote: post #261
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #62

I don't think they are. I think they are optimizing for survival. Serious news is expensive, and at this point, a niche market. Few people would consume it (or even be capable of doing so), even fewer are ready to pay the real price of it. So they did the next best thing: they changed to please the market in a way that makes money. Grabbing a lot of attention, as cheaply as possible, so that you can sell it to the hi…

Serious news is expensive, and at this point, a niche market. I suspect that's correct. It's hard now to find any news outlet now that sticks to "Who, What, When, Where, Why". This is a consequence of pay per click, probably. The left and the right now both have a checklist of mandatory positions required to avoid punishment. Those positions are in many cases contrary to fact. That's not good. Denial has become a cor…

Reuters is the best I’ve seen at “just the facts”. Very little sensationalism.

I blocked CNN from my phone because checking it repeatedly all day gave me high blood pressure.

Re: The American Press Is Destroying Itself

#530

Post by cmdshiftf4 »

gameswithgo wrote: post #502
cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, his so called mob has done... nothing here. Which, I know, is very frustrating to those who are salivating at the thought of seeing them provoked. The unanswered cries of "where's the 2FA crowd now?!" have, admittedly, been very satisfying to watch.

are you fucking retarded?

There's a couple breaches of the guidelines in that post there buddy. Would you care to try again?
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