Why is that? It's not something I've looked into at all, so I have no real knowledge base here
Well, it's that bias towards sensationalism and conflict. There's a lot of presenting both sides of the issue as if they have equal merit when they don't. And sensationalism can completely distort reality. Look at the whole thing with HRC's e-mail server. When you dug into it, there's not really much there. Confidential documents were almost all sent over a separate secure system just like they would have if she used a state department server. Out of all the ones that weren't only like three were confidential at the time and those were mismarked. Even then, nothing was sent to people who didn't have clearance, and there was nothing that was a real threat to national security. But man, the media took the bait and turned into the only story about HRC.
I find local news pretty useless, except for specific issues. The tv news is heavy into "if it bleeds it leads," unless they can find a nice "child in peril" story. Mainstream media, to varying degrees, is beholden to their corporate masters. I am delighted Dan Rather has found the Internet.
I think the problem is many people don't want to engage their critical thinking skills and consume multiple media sources with a cautious mind. It's easier to reject MSM fully than have any nuance on the subject. See also: everything.
Mainstream media, to varying degrees, is beholden to their corporate masters.
This is true, but I'm not convinced that alternative news sources are any more reliable.
You're right, they have their own masters.
I made a grilled cheese sandwich that was only about 75% successful. And yet, it's still a grilled cheese sandwich.
What's weird is that one of the people who's decrying mainstream media is very liberal.
Bernie bro? Anti-GMO?
No! That's why I'm so confused! Though she does overcompensate with the "there are always 3 sides to every story" belief. (My reaction was "There are NOT 3 sides to the EO banning immigrants from 7 countries; there are Nazis and there are civil liberties. There's no truth in the middle that's being missed.")
I feel like I need a retreat from the news to keep my head straight. Like I need to prioritize the things that I want to happen so that I can spend all of my time advocating for those. But there is so much to fight against that I can't figure it out.
So if you could only fix two things that are going on at the federal level right now, what would they be?
I have a dream scenario (it involves a Scandal like plot where there is an extrajudicial law enforcement group headed by someone who is a cross between Joe Morton's character, JD from Heathers and Dick Cheney who targets Bannon). But that seems unlikely (and untenable).
