***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[Mark Antony]

Mainstream Tommy Tuberville.

 

[rexanglorum]

I definitely don’t think that all mainstream media is bad or that all on the ground peer to peer media are super credible. At the same time, I do believe that the median liberal in this country gives far too much weight to the major outlets and ignores this nascent sources of truth that is crowd sourced peer to peer news and commentary. For the sake of clarity, I am only counting the big three of cable, the NYT, the WaPo, LA Times, etc. and network news. I am excluding the BBC, PBS, RT, and other state media, as well as the financial press. They both have bias too but in different ways than the MSM.

Increasingly, it is the case that if I see 100 Tiktok posts from on the ground relating an on going news story, I feel far more informed than if I hear the same eight former US Attorneys and former Bush administration officials (and that's on the "liberal" cable news outlet, no less) whose independent analysis always just so happens to be a rehash of State Department, Law Enforcement, and US Chamber of Commerce all happen to say on a given issue. If I want to know more about homelessness, I'd prefer to hear from unhoused people or activists on the street. If I want to know more about trans people, I'd rather hear from 100 trans people or their health providers. If I want to know more about the border, I'd rather hear from migrants. And when it comes to Israel and Gaza, I obviously want to here from people actually in Gaza.

A corollary to this that I prefer to hear directly from my opponents on a given issue. For example, seeing Tiktoks from ordinary Israelis have been extremely clarifying. It's ironic because Israel and the United States REALLY do not like this and it has probably undermined Israel's global standing far more than the devasting images out of Gaza (which are themselves powerful and illuminating), because for most ordinary Israeli's, by and large, there's nothing complicated about this situation, they see Gazans as vermin and their pain and humiliation and displacement and death are to be (often literally) celebrated. A similar dynamic exists when we get to let ordinary opponents of trans rights, universal housing, labor rights, civil rights, speak for themselves.

Is crowd sourced media on its own, ideal? Absolutely not. We need credible, widely agreed upon sources, and we need professional journalists. And on that score, the MSM, especially newspapers, have been so thoroughly hollowed out that they can barely perform those functions anymore.

Newspapers and cable news and network news simply do not have the staff or the budget to cover proceedings at city hall, but DSA Housing 4 All Caucus members are there and they are tweeting about it. MSM does have people on the ground in Gaza but Arabic speaking journalists and humanitarian aid workers are there, as are Gazans who speak English, and they all are tweeting about it. The MSM declares a "crisis at the border," from their studios in New York but liberal unitarians. who are handing out water to actual migrants are down there and they have a smartphone and they are posting/fund raising. It's not so much alternative/online media versus mainstream media, it's a matter of those who show up vs. those who do not show up. And the MSM is bad and is getting worse at showing up and has and will continue to therefore default to even more "access" journalism and commentary, which means that they cannot perform their signature task, unbiased reporting from places the viewer does not themselves have physical access to borders crossing, far away cities, war zones, or the halls of power. Without an ability to do that, they are no more credible than citizen or alternative media and are usually dreadfully boring in comparison.

 

[yobyellav]

People much smarter than me, those 2 for example, talk about the events of Jan 6 like it was an isolated event when speaking insurrection. What happened at the capitol was a part of the “organized effort to overthrow the government.” Hell, it was the only successful part of the effort. The goal at the Capitol was to delay certification while trump’s elected and hired henchmen worked to get a different slate of electors in and get votes tossed. That’s where the insurrection failed.

Combine the “riot” at the Capitol designed to delay certification with the other ****, and there’s your insurrection. And yes, trump was a key part of it. He should not be allowed to run according to the constitution.

*not that I’m a big fan of that document to begin with*

 

[IATT]

Outside of the crazies the problem with the media is 2 things

mainly (1) the false equivalence BS.. for some odd reason theyve taking it upon themselves to interpret ‘balance’ to mean feeling the need to cover and treat absurd things that are done with the same level of attention as something minor simply because of who is doing it

and also those treating some of the things happening as politics as usual or just outright being ignorant and proud of it, like this

 

[mplsdunk]

Since we’re talking about news. My wife works with the guy who started unicorn riot brother.

Dude does great work

 

[gry60]

Increasingly, it is the case that if I see 100 Tiktok posts from on the ground relating an on going news story, I feel far more informed than if I hear the same eight former US Attorneys and former Bush administration officials (and that's on the "liberal" cable news outlet, no less) whose independent analysis always just so happens to be a rehash of State Department, Law Enforcement, and US Chamber of Commerce all happen to say on a given issue. If I want to know more about homelessness, I'd prefer to hear from unhoused people or activists on the street. If I want to know more about trans people, I'd rather hear from 100 trans people or their health providers. If I want to know more about the border, I'd rather hear from migrants. And when it comes to Israel and Gaza, I obviously want to here from people actually in Gaza.

A corollary to this that I prefer to hear directly from my opponents on a given issue. For example, seeing Tiktoks from ordinary Israelis have been extremely clarifying. It's ironic because Israel and the United States REALLY do not like this and it has probably undermined Israel's global standing far more than the devasting images out of Gaza (which are themselves powerful and illuminating), because for most ordinary Israeli's, by and large, there's nothing complicated about this situation, they see Gazans as vermin and their pain and humiliation and displacement and death are to be (often literally) celebrated. A similar dynamic exists when we get to let ordinary opponents of trans rights, universal housing, labor rights, civil rights, speak for themselves

I'm not sure this is the right way to stay informed in a world where algorithms are designed to feed you content they think you'd like based on what you've already seen, with no ability to paint a fuller picture.

Anedoctes add color to the stories that data tells (which is important). On their own, I don't trust anecdotes to tell the overall story. 100s of short videos don't beat other methods of gauging public support.
Finally, we cannot assume that the information broadcast to us is devoid of lies simply because the narrator appears to be unaffiliated. The broadcasting capabilities of social media amplify the ability to propagandize, and every political actor exploits this ability to the fullest extent.

And the MSM is bad and is getting worse at showing up and has and will continue to therefore default to even more "access" journalism and commentary, which means that they cannot perform their signature task, unbiased reporting from places the viewer does not themselves have physical access to borders crossing, far away cities, war zones, or the halls of power. W

I agree.

Younger folks here probably don't know that major news outlets used to have staffed bureaus stationed all over the world, which allowed them to perform the data gathering and vetting at the source. Read Tom Fenton's "Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All." All of that was sacrificed to the altar of profits. To go from there to a media ecosystem dominated by random videographers and 30-second exposes is where I disagree. We don't need a media ecosystem without gatekeepers; we need better ones.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

Not gon lie, it's actually kinda ill watching Putin's manipulation play out right now.

In terms of influence campaigns, it's hard to see how anyone could outdo him.

He turned a large portion of the right into damn near Putin/Russia stans and wrapped Trump around his finger, while also causing a portion of the left to tie just about anything back to Russia/Putin.

 

[IATT]

 

[chao7]

TJ Ducklo, senior communications advisor for the Biden/Harris campaign. We need more of this. I'm tired of being passive about what the media keeps doing:

 

[DLF]

TJ Ducklo, senior communications advisor for the Biden/Harris campaign. We need more of this. I'm tired of being passive about what the media keeps doing:

Absolutely this is needed. Call these clowns out.


Do the same to Biden. He too is confused and a lying sack of ****

 

[shogun]

I’ll all for trashing that orange criminal but ignoring him is also kinda good considering he loves the attention and playing victim all the time.

 

[Frankie Blue]

 

[DLF]

Dude. This is worse than Netanyahu. Putin is a savage.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[DLF]

Damn, so the stereotype of army wives having affairs is accurate

 

[Frankie Blue]

This is wild..

 

[IATT]

dude needs to wear the bow tie again

 

[IATT]

 

[Benny Hinn]

 

[IATT]

Trent is dead to me



And ain’t even hard… now if BG or fletch pulled this shh

 

[Wargames]

I told ya’ll it was a mistake to draw attention to mistakes Biden makes when Trump just says crazy unhinged things when he isn’t making his own mistakes.

 

[IATT]

I told ya’ll it was a mistake to draw attention to mistakes Biden makes when Trump just says crazy unhinged things when he isn’t making his own mistakes.

If the “journalist” actually did their jobs, the BS from republicans wouldn’t work

And by no means am I saying not to cover democratic news

But if for example republicans are going claim their wasn’t an insurrection, don’t give them a platform to continue that BS unless you have blown up pictures of them hiding for their literal lives on that day behind them