nickie on 27/11/2017 at 18:38
Quote Posted by Renzatic
When someone strings them together in a single sentence, a'la agenda driven narrative, it makes me wanna SLAY AND SLAUGHTER EVERYONE!
Absolutely. Who wouldn't be driven crazy by the lack of hyphen.
Renzatic on 27/11/2017 at 18:39
I vaguely recall Zylonbane saying something about hyphens making him mad once.
N'Al on 27/11/2017 at 21:44
IIRC, he hyphenventilated.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Renzatic on 27/11/2017 at 21:50
N'Al wins the internet! Accolades will be forthcoming!
Yaaayyy!
N'Al on 27/11/2017 at 21:56
TTLG called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man Who Wins the Internet,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
Starker on 28/11/2017 at 05:21
Speaking of alternative news sources...
Mainstream news outlets at least have some standards and some pressure to get it right. It's the alternative news sources that propagate completely ludicrous stories that the Steele dossier was made up by 4chan or that Clinton sold uranium to Russia or that the Vegas shooting was a false flag operation with crisis actors or that Democrats are running a meeting place for satanic ritual abuse / child sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a pizzeria that does not have a basement.
Renzatic on 28/11/2017 at 05:25
I see what N'Al did there.
And Starker does have a point. While yee olde MSM does have a tendency to spin issues, or harp on certain things a little too long, you can at least take some comfort in knowing there's a factual basis underneath it all. You can't say the same for the Alt-Right news sources, which runs on nigh made up sensationalism written specifically to stir up the ire of their readership.
heywood on 28/11/2017 at 11:44
Quote Posted by Starker
So stories like Watergate were just a random fluke then? If newspapers were nothing more than government propaganda machines, how come there have been so many stories that expose corruption in the government?
Well, first of all, I said the TV networks were government propaganda machines, in part because their news staffs were very cozy with the people they were covering, and in part because they are heavily regulated by the FCC who treats them like a public service. In those days, the FCC used the fairness doctrine to make sure that nobody strayed too far from the establishment position. The newspapers had more freedom, but the papers that had any wide circulation in a metro area avoided publishing content out of the mainstream.
My point wasn't really about covering corruption, it was about the way the media took up and defended whatever the government's position was on most issues, but especially international issues or anything related to national security or law enforcement. That continues to some extent today, but now we have access to foreign media who will break stories that the US media won't (e.g. Snowden).
Regarding corruption, my impression is that the exposure and investigation of corruption is driven by partisan politics more than anything else. So the media is always going to get help from one party or the other. And depending on who is accused, they still might look away. Watergate was a leak by the FBI's #2 man (Mark Felt) who was effectively running the FBI at the time. He did it because Nixon had passed him over for Director after Hoover's death in favor of a Nixon political stooge named Patrick Gray, who obstructed the FBI's Watergate investigation. Also, the FBI under Hoover was an empire unto itself, and Nixon's attempt to reign it in after Hoover's death alienated some career FBI guys e.g. Felt, so there was an adversarial relationship between the Bureau and the White House.
Starker on 28/11/2017 at 13:12
Well, I don't really know what the American media was like before the 1990s and I only started following American news regularly in the 2000s. But wasn't the fairness doctrine meant to ensure there were contrasting views present in the reporting? How was it used to make sure that nobody strayed too far from the establishment position?
Dia on 28/11/2017 at 13:26
Sorry for the interruption, but I just
had to post a link to an article that has given me my first good laugh of the day.
'Fresh off Thanksgiving weekend, President Trump referred to himself as “your favorite President” while returning to one of his favorite pastimes — upbraiding the news media.'(
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-labels-favorite-president-raging-media-161834457.html)
Oh. My. God. If that orange baboon really believes that he is our 'favorite President', then all hope is lost for our country. Frankly, I am SO sick and tired of all this winning. Obviously so are 57% of U.S. citizens. Somebody please, please make it stop.
Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation is less than pleased with that travesty-of-a-POTUS' Pocahontas remark. As are most of us who still have a functioning brain. Just when you think that morally bereft (he seems to like supporting rapists and pedophiles ... I guess it takes one to know one), classless, clueless, undignified, moron who is totally lacking in diplomacy, tact, and compassion can't embarrass us and our country any more than he already has, he tops himself by spewing yet another, even more cringe-worthy statement. omg
(
https://www.axios.com/native-american-leaders-respond-to-trump-calling-warren-pocahontas-2513081520.html)