Tag: Journalism

Wednesday, August 14th 2024

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The New Rules

Look at this post from Dave Winer of Scripting News. Yes, I know, it’s from this.how, it’s his index. I really like these ideas. It’s a damn shame we won’t get that from cable news, but that’s not really the job of cable news. This is what I meant yesterday when I said we deserve better. We deserve journalists who call bullshit when they see it. We need folks who understand that there cannot possibly be two sides to some things. And we need folks who aren’t afraid of losing ‘access’, whatever that means.

I think we also need to get back to separating news from comment. Again, this is where cable news has changed the norm and blurred the lines between the two. They also turn up the sensationalism to attract the most eyeballs to watch through the ad breaks. In practical terms that matter right now, they’ve turned the Election into a a reality show. Why not, considering the candidate they can’t bear to fact check or stop covering altogether.

We’re not an electorate, we’re a demographic. We should demand better.

Rethinking The News

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From Wajahat Ali’s Twitter:

Right-wing take over of Politico and CNN, plus mainstream outlets like CBS News and others actively courting Trumpers and pulling their punches for sake of GOP “access” reveals everything terrible about mainstream media and its normalization of fascism. It’s going to get worse.

…

Last year, a producer told me how low the bar had become for conservative voices on TV. They had to 1) Accept Biden won the election and 2) Not support white supremacy or be overtly white supremacist. It was very difficult to find these voices.

Mainstream media outlets like those listed above aren’t moving rightward, but they are normalizing “bothsides-ism”.  That’s the problem; there aren’t both sides to be had here if you’re a sane person.  Anyone who insists that there are both sides to this issue either doesn’t get it or is paid not to.