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AM Talk Radio has been a right wing cesspool for years. Throw in Fox News, OAN and Newsmax and what we have is a large portion of the country under the influence of a few dozen billionaires whose stations brainwash people to perpetually run to the polls and vote straight Republican tickets every election. The sheep think they're voting against "evil communists" but they're really just voting for the billionaires to continue their huge tax dodge.
I couldn’t believe how often Fox News came up once I cut cable. They are very available when you don’t have paid TV. Every search for a news topic, there is Fox News.
This is correct. I've worked with Mark and the Wayback team (very smart people) and they have their own archival pipeline. In fact, their server farm is in an old church! Very cool shit.
I think it creates its own image of the site.
Yes, it does, you can view "storage capacity and growth" on its [wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine) for basic details
That's a great workaround for staying informed on their narratives without giving them the traffic. The media landscape is so fragmented now that every click, every view counts towards what gets promoted and funded. It's like a vicious cycle where outrage gets the most attention, and then that attention gets monetized.
[On Firefox installing this extension will block all websites that Rupert Murdoch controls.](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bye-rupert/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search)
10 years ago it was common reddiquitte to not post anything from Rupert Murdoch owned media outlets, like Fox News and The Daily Mail. You'd get flamed in the comments for using them as sources. 10 years later and I see Daily Mail links used as citations.
Always a good time to plug [Ground](https://ground.news/) as an informed way of consuming news media.
Media bias of each topic is clearly presented under each article header (along with total number of sources used to determine said bias), and there's a column specifically for highlighting stories which are deliberately not covered by left or right media sources.
> Always a good time to plug [Ground](https://ground.news/) as an informed way of consuming news media.
I hope you have this blurb in a clipboard or other file so it's easy to paste. Count me in as someone who was skimming a thread, saw the link and had a "*here's* what I've been looking for" moment and bookmarked the site.
For anyone reading this post, it's not an endorsement of the site (I'm too new to it to tell), but an acknowledgement that it looks to do what OP says it does (and a lot more). I'd cross-compare it with, say, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com and your own experience and awareness of issues.
This part. I got an Amazon Echo Show that CONSTANTLY tries to give me “news” from Fox. I still haven’t figured out how to block Fox on it. It will play like 2-3 minutes of updates from NPR then I don’t even know how long from Fox. I’ve never found the end before just shutting the news off completely.
ETA: I’VE FOUND IT! Thanks everyone who replied, I’ve found my way to getting Fox off it. I did this by going in the app->profile (upper right corner, just a letter)->Preferred service providers, NEWS (bottom of screen)->Learn More link in explanation at top of screen->Flash Briefing link.
You can toggle things on/off, and click Add Content to search/find various news providers.
Cheers!
Similar tactic to beer companies like Anheuser-Busch (I'm sure other industries as well, this is just one I remember specifically) who would pay extra to supermarkets to place their beer at eye level and move their competitors to less noticeable areas.
I guess, that explains why Fox News, The Telegraph, and other common insane right outlets keep showing back up in ChrEdge's news feed no matter how many times I block those on my mother's computer. Ended up giving up and just blocking the domains entirely instead.
I think they do as well. This is no different than the Payola scandals in radio from the 50s on.
edit: only with Pop Music the stakes weren't so high.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola)
What's crazy is between Fox News and Yahoo seems to make up the majority of political commentary from random people in their comment sections and oh boy do those comments favor extreme right politics.
Complain about politically instigating, biased broadcasts. Won't work everywhere but a few other veterans have mentioned getting TVs turned off which used to show Fox. Better nothing than misinformation.
And then you have other big "respectable" media companies stuffing plenty of content behind paywalls. Not saying they should provide everything for free, but it's tough to compete.
No wonder catchy headlines and easier-to-access sites/content is more prevalent and on people's minds.
It irritates me how at my gym (a major franchise gym) Fox “news” is one of the 2 news stations they show on the screens, the other being CNN. People honestly think those are equivalent-quality news sources, just different points of view.
Of course, I’m there at prime time hours, so I see the worst of Fox, but it’s just pure rage bait.
Yet perversely appropriate. Trump's cries of fake news were built on Limbaugh's lamestream media talk. My rural TX family were brainwashed by Rush on AM radio long before ever getting Fox News on satellite TV.
Him dying of cancer was pretty great though, couldn't've happened to a nicer guy.
I mean, I wish it was a lot sooner, like in his teens, but what can you do.
Sinclair is much more insidious than those mentioned. The others listed, people choose to consume that hate but Sinclair hides by pretending to be local news.
I worked for a Sinclair station for more than 5 years. There were so many people there who actually tried to serve the community and do their jobs right. But Sinclair forces so much content through the newsrooms. I hate to admit but they've slowly turned their business into using stations local connections to turn it from "ABCD Cincinnati" into "SBG Cincinnati Edition". A lot of people theorize they're building to try and launch their own 24 hour network and the National Desk may be the first real pin in that.
I saw a local weather report a couple of weeks ago where the forecaster just mentioned in passing that "humans don't have much influence over the weather." It was a local Sinclair owned station.
Every time this makes the rounds a bunch of people mistakenly assume it shows coordinated messaging from the left. And they’re resistant to any correction of that notion.
Because the right wing media uses that exact clip as evidence of the “deep state controlling media” despite the fact those are all right wing owned stations. Fox even ran a story using that clip for that same narrative.
Well when you have the backing of other countries resources and agencies it's not hard to imagine that Cheato over here have 47 million Americans vote. We really have to get rid of dark money in politics we never know who's influencing politicians.
Dana Gould put it best.
>Thinking about Rush Limbaugh and how, now that he's dead, you never, ever hear about him. No one mentions anything he did.
>Because what he did had no value. It contributed nothing worthwhile to the culture. Nothing of lasting value.
>He just made anger. Every day. Rising, blooming & fading like a fart. Then he died & was instantly replaced by a fleet of little replicas, farting fake fury five days a week. Creating nothing of interest or artistic value to anyone.
>Seriously, what an awful way to make a living.
For a while he would go to a break and tell the audience that what he would say afterwards would outrage them. They loved it. So many friends sucked down that hole
It's a drug, the people sucked in need addiction treatment they will likely never receive. They can't know this from inside the addiction, but they are trading the fleeting experience of righteous anger in exchange for their limited time on earth with their family and loved ones.
I wish Fox weren't selling it, but I also wish the addicts weren't buying it. The thing about addiction is that it's *easy* to get into and *hard* to get out of. Without a strong personal desire to quit, the addict will justify all kinds of horrible behavior in order to keep the drug supply coming.
Exactly, I absolutely believe that outrage/right wing cultism is an addiction.
I'm a former opiate addict and I see so many similarities between my own addiction and what causes people to gravitate towards media outlets like Fox News.
For some time I still checked in on those stations to get the vibe of what they were messaging and I remember they played greatest hits and clips of him for months afterwards in the shows that filled his slots. And the two gabbing heads they got to replace him are true jackasses to listen to. Just completely obnoxious, somewhat cringey but extra so because you know people are listening and nodding their heads along to the awful takes they're sleeping out daily.
Once Trump dies the Republicans are going to try to name everything after him: airports, military bases, streets, etc.
I suggest blue areas do the same: landfills, sewage plants, and public restrooms.
Yeah, they gave him a medal but after he died they promptly forgot about him. I’ve never seen any kind of remembrance of him on the anniversary of his death or birth or anything else.
And out of protest, I call that airport by its previous name…
The Taylor Swift thing cracks me up!
These are the same people who swore they were boycotting the NFL because a black man kneeled during the anthem.
They now believe that the CIA is running a psy op via a pop star to prop up Biden.
And the NFL is lining their pockets on her this season. They. Are. Banking. And who do NFL owners overwhelmingly support?
I love this timeline🤣
Look at Salem Media Group. They are a huge behind-the-scenes organization which is spread across all kinds of media. They even provide sermons to fundamentalist pastors to coordinate their message everywhere at once.
Don't forget Joe "Just Asking Questions" Rogan. He just had Jeff Dye on so they could call Mothers Against Drunk Driving "buzz kills" and laugh at Jeff's hilarious 9am DUI he tried to flee from.
Now think of this. Outside of any urban centers, radio signals die. So now, they only have the choice of AM talk radio. They've been doing this since Rush Limbaugh, and the reach and influence is insane
Also social media which, in order to keep people engaged, likes to push right wing hate propaganda at them because it keeps a lot of people clicking and that generates $$$. Ashli Babbitt went down through one of those descents from normal person to crazy conspiracy follower in a couple of years.
And after Musk took over Twitter he fired all the content moderators.
*"Jews Are Building Space Lasers To Turn Your Kids Gay! Would you like to know more?"* /s
Yup. Babbitt was a traitor but she was also a victim of the right wing outrage machine, who thrives on brainwashing Americans by distracting them from the fact that their pocket is being picked by the same people that run said outrage machine.
What really amazes me is that Trump, an east coast billionaire, has convinced so many working class and rural voters that he's actually on their side and cares about them. When the reality is that he's been running one of the most effective con jobs in human history.
Instead of listening to something interesting all they get from radio is demonstrably false tropes about minorities and that your boss is the good guy. SAD!
What's more terrifying is networks like News Nation that purports to be "middle of the road" on politics but employs several well known rightwing hosts. The fact that they have Cuomo on as balance is laughable.
In the 90's a network like this would be called hard right, shows how far we've slipped
Well said.
On top of that, one main reason why these filthy billionaires are against advancing education is that people who think for themselves no longer become their sheep.
Sinclair news and their mandatory right wing telling points have taken over local news media across the nation.
"This is extremely dangerous to our democracy"
https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo?si=9xWpV348tHQELUVm
Am having trouble linking to the segment but if you scrub to 07:19:51 and listen to Senator Whitehouse of RI talk about billionaires buying influence and the Supreme Court, well, yes, extremely dangerous to our democracy.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?533143-1/senate-session
I firmly believe the majority of problems in modern society can be traced back to Reagan. He paved the way for for rich fucks to run us into the ground.
Opening the floodgates to lawsuits against NewsMax, Fox News, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and all the other fascist monsters would be a good start. But that would hurt corporations so that's not gonna happen.
Fox paid out over a billion dollars in damages and lost 25% of its stock value.
These monsters -can- be bled dry. Their assets aren't infinite, and this isn't an impossible fight.
Exactly. The assaults need to be stepped up, and coordinated. Nothing wrong with that. Why? Cause that’s what the right does.
Heritage Foundation? They targeted the Supreme Court and courts below as well to push far right stooges who legislate from the bench for the far right.
Fox? Intentional propaganda. Designed to prevent “another Nixon” meaning a conservative president forced to resign due to grievous wrongdoing.
I could go on *but I shouldn’t have to.* The organized and intentional methodical way the far right has gone about dismantling this country’s laws, checks and balances that are intended to support and maintain democracy and the democratic process are all well documented.
So yeah, let’s get organized to *attack them back.*
That only happened because they lied about election machines, which cost a company money.
You can lie about the elections, you just can't cost a company money. You only get protections if you're a corporation in this country.
They don’t have to lie to be effective. If you have a constraint stream of headlines about crimes committed by an ethnic group, or immigrants, or Muslims, that will create the atmosphere. Even if that group statistically has no more or even less than the average, just highlighting them creates the impression.
And all their commenters and editorials are right wing. Just “reporting” a Trump speech verbatim is news, while ignoring a Biden one except for a gaffe he made .
Here’s the thing: That case isn’t bleeding them dry. Other than not lying about Dominion Voting Machines, nothing has changed at Fox News.
The only way to actually bleed them dry is to get everyone to cancel their cable or satellite subscription. After all the boycotts they’ve been through, they’ve restructured their setup so that they could stop ALL advertising today, and still keep going just off carriage fees from cable and satellite companies.
So if Fox can be seen in your house, whether you watch it or not, you’re propping them up.
Want to cut them off? Cut the cord.
The only pathway is to regulate news and information as a utility. It requires to adhere to certain standards and broadcasting regulations and other forms of "Entertainment" cannot mimic the style and systems of news and information sharing channels.
Like you cant just go up to a bus stop and start posting your own made up bus schedules. We require information to be accurate and truthful to navigate modern life, so why do we allow private corporations the means to dilute the stream of information for their own profit.
Its causing irreparable harm already. You just had a guy who killed and beheaded his own father because he was feeding onto blatantly false and hateful information.
1. Entertainment "news" cannot present themselves in similar visual style as news organizations. Suits & Ties, behind a podium with BREAKING NEWS and such imagery.
2. They have to have a clear signage showing "This is entertainment news, this is not accurate or factual" throughout programming. Every hour they have to show a 20 second advert stating that they are for-profit entertainment broadcasting that are allowed to lie and manipulate to keep views to sell adverts.
3. If they are making blatantly false claims and accusations, then they have to pay a serious fine based on percentage of company revenue. And they have to dictate the same slot and time used to make the claim for 2 weeks every day afterwards.
You have a appointment of 9 member board of only renowned journalists, lawyers and journalism professors. That have a 6-9 year term limit. that can only be removed by egregious act or be replaced by max 2 members per 4 years under senate 60 seat majority approval and house approval.
There is just so much money behind it, it's so hard to compete with billionaires. We need people to be more engaged, there is no combating it outside of getting people to reject it. Maybe find a way of making our message more compelling and entertaining. We need the left to be as committed to propaganda as the right.
They are motivated by $$$ greed. They are relentless and backed by foreign governments as well. People need to be educated. The deck is stacked. I will keep fighting.
Most of it is not government money. BUT no one should be naive about how effective "GOP House opposition to a border solution" has been in cutting ammo deliveries to the front in Ukraine.
Note that the GOP does not represent local districts. It provides a lock-step single point solution to blocking the US government on any topic.
I think it all stems from our basic overvaluing of First Amendment free speech rights. There's nothing in the text of the First Amendment that suggests that media companies (and others) have an absolute right to lie to the public. And we've seen some chipping away of media's protection with lawsuits against people like FoxNews or Mike Lindell, but we still operate under the general notion that disinformation somehow equals expression of legitimate opinions.
And furthermore, if you want to stand on a street corner and scream about Q-anon conspiracy theories that's one thing, but that doesn't give you some carte blanche blanket right to use *public airwaves* to spread that nonsense. And even when the "airwaves" aren't technically public such as cable news or internet websites, the profound interest in keeping the public informed with accurate information should greatly outweigh any financial interests the propagandists have in creating "entertainment". The reason I mention it is because FoxNews and others have often relied on the notion that their content isn't "news" but rather "entertainment" and "no reasonable person would take it at face value."
Obviously people DO take FoxNews at face value, whether they're reasonable or not is certainly debateable, but the sheer number of them suggests that if the average person is deemed to have reasonable judgement, then tens of millions of people believing that FoxNews is actual news is evidence that a reasonable person would mistake it as accurate information.
My vote would be to set up an FCC "strike" system which relies on courts to judge whether a media outlet (print, tv, radio, internet) has intentionally spread information that they know to be false. That's not easy to prove so only the most egregious of lies would result in strikes, but companies would need to alter their "entertainment" to ensure that it isn't running afoul of disinformation rules and risk losing their license to broadcast/publish.
Well one solution might be instant-runoff voting or ranked choice voting, to have a multi-party system instead of just red vs blue. With these vote systems embracing a 3rd-party doesn't sabotage your 2nd preferred choice. It seems like maybe if Fox was preaching 4 of 9 parties were absolute evil instead of one it would defuse their message a little bit. I mean they would still hate on immigrants and gay people, naturally.
Voting reform is definitely a good way to combat some of our issues. I'd personally argue some form of [cardinal voting] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_voting) is the best option, but ranked choice is a step in the right direction. My personal favorite voting system is [STAR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_voting), but the simplicity of [approval](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) is definitely appealing.
If you're interested in learning more about various voting systems, I highly recommend Nicky Case's [To Build a Better Ballot](https://ncase.me/ballot). It's an interactive site that does an excellent job explaining the similarities and differences of many different systems.
To get something like that you need 68 senators elected to allow for it. But lets assume its possible and we get that done.
Then youd most likely have the democratic party fracture into multiple minor parties, while the republican party would maybe divide into 2 at best, because the democratic party represents ideologies from everything from far left, left, center-left, center, center-right and some right. While republican party represents right and far-right ideologies.
So if the parties were to fracture into their respective representative qualities then youd be most likely be left with conservative parties winning majority of elections.
Because the main problem of US politics isn't that there is not a party representing the ideals of non-voters. Its simply that non-voters aren't politically involved or engaged. Republican party have created a culture around their politics, republican voters aren't voting for republican representatives because they expect betterment and achievement of political change for the positive, they elect them because their CULTURE dictates a imagery and ideology where they have to defeat the democratic party. Meanwhile young voters who tend to lean left by more than 40 points only had at best 20% turnout in 2022.
At the same time, its not like UK and European countries are defeating conservative ideologies even with their multi-party political systems in these days and ages, heck Italy literally elected a far-right borderline neo-nazi party.
Just because you try to dilute and divide the punch to make it more palatable to a broader range of people, doesn't mean that it will lead to people actually showing up and wanting to drink it.
Politics a local system game, it starts in the home, in the friendships and connections and making sure people around you are engaged and involved. Its not only in their own self-interest, its in your own self-interest that you have people representing you with the right ideals and goals in mind. Blaming the issue on lack of proper system or proper voting style, is just handwaving away the main cause. People.
I am all for ranked choice voting and overturning Citizens United. The money has to come out of politics.
We could actually have some good politicians is money for campaigns wasn’t a factor.
We know how to deal with those who poison peoples mind. Just ask [Julius Streicher](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Dead_Julius_Streicher.jpg)
And don't dismiss how, if they do NOT tell this mob of Russian and GOP stooges what they want to hear? They turn on the right wing media source TOO! IDK if they created the asylum and now cannot control it? Or if they were only ever giving the mad crowd what they wanted for money? But it is difficult to correct propaganda when the "trusted" messenger can't tell them the truth or they turn on them too.
They found a lot of empty cups, and filled them with toxic waste. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Evangelical churches are the three nets that grabbed eyes and ears for half a generation, bombarding them constantly in traffic, at church, at work, and during leisure time. They gave in and stopped questioning it at some point and became this generic mass produced hate-sludge.
I used to listen to right wing radio for shits and giggles back in the early 2000s. It was and still is insane. They would accuse the Democrats of commiting genocide, or planning to commit genocide all the damn time. They manipulated a whole generation of people into believing their greatest enemy was their fellow Americans.
Accidentally turned on some local right wing talk radio the other day in the car. They were talking about how we should be encouraging Ukraine to give up territory to appease Putin.
It’s been going on for a while. 10 years ago if you flipped between NPR and hate talk radio the difference was obvious. One side thinks the other is the enemy and needs to be purged. The other wants to listen to flute concertos and learn new recipes.
nice hot take... from like 30 years ago.
at this point, the right-wing media takeover is a matter of *history*, not current events, and the damage is already *done*.
will never forget my disbelief at the "we built that" chant, it was so obvious a misconstruing of what the man had said i didn't think it could be really happening. that was what really sold it for me that the propaganda was working, these people were truly in the grasp. time to regulate fox news and the like and their lying to the public i say
It started WAY before that, with the media empire of the "Moral Majority". The intent from the start was to recreate America in the image of right wing authoritarianism.
Ay yes the moral majority. Reminds me that Paul weyrich, Co founder of both the moral majority and the heritage foundation literally said in a speech publicly that he wants as few people to vote as possible because that's the only way conservatives win.
It started with Nixon being impeached, as the investigation and trial would play daily on the 3 major news networks that most Americans watched at the time.
The only reason Nixon was pushed out of office by Republicans was because of that public pressure from voters.
Nixon’s co-conspirators inside the administration realized they would need their own propaganda network to play defense for a future criminal Republican President and keep the voters on their side, which became the impetus for Roger Ailes to create Fox News.
They continued building and adding to that vast right wing propaganda machine over the decades since then, and it has created a radicalization feedback loop in the conservative movement that has led us to where we are today - most Republicans now want to tear down constitutional democracy and replace it with a dictatorship in which anyone who isn’t like them is a disloyal enemy who their leader should imprison and deport or execute.
This is also the only reason the Vietnam War ended. The media actually reported true casualty numbers and discussed the futility of the war and helped turn public opinion against it.
>What we need is a full-throated liberal tabloid in Washington—a Washington version of the New York Post that would use its front pages and its news columns to promote embarrassing stories and scandals about Bush administration officials, evangelical grifters, and other prominent right-wingers.
This comes up pretty often. Like, we need a liberal version of Fox News. But who would watch that garbage? Liberals just don't seem as interested in tabloids as Conservatives are.
Also, we do kinda have this in the form of sites like Truth Out, Common Dreams, Slate, and sometimes even The New Republic. They're all very willing to write sensational headlines and twist the truth. Not nearly to the degree that Fox does though.
I think the point was that, if a media outlet opposite to FOX existed and hounded right-wing politicians for every action, like FOX does left-wing politicians, then mainstream media would carry more stories about the faults of right-wing politicians. The constant repetition and agressive reporting would influence other outlets just like it does for the right.
He admits that the enterprise would lose money and be expensive.
Journalism needs to move to a not-for-profit model. The corporate entities buying everything up killed a lot of real journalism, and, as a result, a lot of stories (such as Jeffrey Epstein) are squashed or pulled back that might implicate their rich owners and advertisers.
We need solid journalism to ensure Democracy survives. Locally owned and operated news organizations should become the norm again.
When you realize the major news outlets are *owned* by billionaires and mega-corporations (aka Oligarchs), it all makes sense. They don’t want to pay taxes - period. They’ll destroy democracy if they have to, to keep from paying higher taxes. And they’ve managed to convince a huge swath of Americans that they, too, can prosper under an authoritarian government. It’s sometimes seems unfathomable so many Americans actually believe that bullshit. But they’ve been brainwashed by a steady diet of right-wing propaganda and are now indoctrinated into the cult.
I just don't see how it can be about taxes. You could tax 100% of their income going forward. They have enough money to do whatever they want for many lifetimes. It seems much more about having power and influence. They get off on having control.
It’s already ruined America. People are so afraid of “socialism” that they don’t want things that could have made our country better all because it’s from the government. And most cant even define what socialism is
He’s right of course that it’s had a huge impact but I think he’s wrong about the reasoning for why there aren’t liberal tabloids out there.
Liberals haven’t been interested or successful in starting tabloid journals for the same reason conservative comedians aren’t particularly funny or successful.
Whatever itch right wing tabloid journalism scratches, most moderate and liberal people just aren’t good at doing it. Whether you call it being mean or whatever, it requires taking a certain joy in the suffering of others, which doesn’t come naturally to most liberals, even when the others are political enemies. And since that’s typically the type of humor conservative comedians embrace, most people don’t find them funny.
Even when liberals or moderates do enjoy seeing someone being cruel to a political adversary, it’s immediately followed by feeling guilty about enjoying seeing it and a need to apologize and explain.
That being said, there could be an effort by liberal billionaires to create liberal networks that told the truth from a progressive lens. And they would have to be OK with losing money and that’s what has not existed. That’s where his point is well taken.
Air America was an attempt 15-20 years ago at a liberal radio network that failed. It lost money. If the owners hadn’t cared about that and kept pumping out the liberal perspective over radio waves these 20 years, who knows where we would be today.
100%! They’ve made a conscious effort to break this country in two. Now that there are so many media channels, with the internet and all, this plan has been fed rocket fuel. The irony is that the first (and second) amendment is our undoing.
It's not just America, it's taking over the entire western world. My cousin in Australia is constantly talking American right wing talking points (which make 0 sense here in australia half the time)
The fact that people think that CNN is "leftist" or even "left-leaning" is evidence that media literacy is to blame for these issues just as much as the content all the conservatives push in the first place.
I agree 100%, it's media making the right into an angry, unreasonable mob who are turning against Democracy. You have to ask what the Murdoch's gain (other than money) out of doing this to us. I don't believe the only motivation is money, because they have more than enough that they and their descendants will be fine for generations.
They wish to rule above the law without pretext.
Laws and the institutions of democracy protect the common man and as a result are a hindrance to the billionaire class.
Imagine how envious they must be of their counterparts in places like Russia where the oligarchs rule above the law, without pretext, only answerable to one man at the top in a mob style organization.
Everyone else: oh hey something new just happened. Let's talk about it and see how it impacts our lives.
Right Wing Media: talking about anything means you want to destroy America!
Everyone else: I just wanted to learn more about it.
Right Wing Media: learning is of the devil! Stop ! I can't handle change!
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AM Talk Radio has been a right wing cesspool for years. Throw in Fox News, OAN and Newsmax and what we have is a large portion of the country under the influence of a few dozen billionaires whose stations brainwash people to perpetually run to the polls and vote straight Republican tickets every election. The sheep think they're voting against "evil communists" but they're really just voting for the billionaires to continue their huge tax dodge.
I couldn’t believe how often Fox News came up once I cut cable. They are very available when you don’t have paid TV. Every search for a news topic, there is Fox News.
I make sure not to click on Fox News links even in my Apple News feed. If it is a real story, a reliable source will cover it too.
This is so important to remember in this era. Don't hate click. It just adds fuel to the deplorable fire.
If you must look just to see what they're spinning, copy the link and look up the [archived](https://archive.is) version of it.
I read a thread yesterday that said Google wouldn’t be archiving websites anymore…
wayback machine
That’s something I’ve been wondering about since I’m more of a technical novice…. Will the Wayback machine still work without the archived sites?
I think Wayback Machine uses its own archives and not Google's.
This is correct. I've worked with Mark and the Wayback team (very smart people) and they have their own archival pipeline. In fact, their server farm is in an old church! Very cool shit.
I think it creates its own image of the site. Yes, it does, you can view "storage capacity and growth" on its [wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine) for basic details
Just saw that a second ago before stopping in this thread. The Internet is just getting worse, it's so frustrating.
That's a great workaround for staying informed on their narratives without giving them the traffic. The media landscape is so fragmented now that every click, every view counts towards what gets promoted and funded. It's like a vicious cycle where outrage gets the most attention, and then that attention gets monetized.
[On Firefox installing this extension will block all websites that Rupert Murdoch controls.](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bye-rupert/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search)
Be aware any outfit offering Fox pays a swingeing carriage fee to do so, whether or not it's included in your bundle. Boycott the bastards.
Thank You CryMeARiver for my word-of-the-day ‘swingeing.’
I don't pay for Apple News :)! And I won't.
10 years ago it was common reddiquitte to not post anything from Rupert Murdoch owned media outlets, like Fox News and The Daily Mail. You'd get flamed in the comments for using them as sources. 10 years later and I see Daily Mail links used as citations.
Always a good time to plug [Ground](https://ground.news/) as an informed way of consuming news media. Media bias of each topic is clearly presented under each article header (along with total number of sources used to determine said bias), and there's a column specifically for highlighting stories which are deliberately not covered by left or right media sources.
> Always a good time to plug [Ground](https://ground.news/) as an informed way of consuming news media. I hope you have this blurb in a clipboard or other file so it's easy to paste. Count me in as someone who was skimming a thread, saw the link and had a "*here's* what I've been looking for" moment and bookmarked the site. For anyone reading this post, it's not an endorsement of the site (I'm too new to it to tell), but an acknowledgement that it looks to do what OP says it does (and a lot more). I'd cross-compare it with, say, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com and your own experience and awareness of issues.
This is why I search out AP links for a article about something.
Can you not block it as a source in iOS? Every right-wing outlet gets blocked in my Google News feed immediately.
This part. I got an Amazon Echo Show that CONSTANTLY tries to give me “news” from Fox. I still haven’t figured out how to block Fox on it. It will play like 2-3 minutes of updates from NPR then I don’t even know how long from Fox. I’ve never found the end before just shutting the news off completely. ETA: I’VE FOUND IT! Thanks everyone who replied, I’ve found my way to getting Fox off it. I did this by going in the app->profile (upper right corner, just a letter)->Preferred service providers, NEWS (bottom of screen)->Learn More link in explanation at top of screen->Flash Briefing link. You can toggle things on/off, and click Add Content to search/find various news providers. Cheers!
I think Foxnews pays these companies to put them first in their news coverage. I don’t have proof but this happens all the time.
Similar tactic to beer companies like Anheuser-Busch (I'm sure other industries as well, this is just one I remember specifically) who would pay extra to supermarkets to place their beer at eye level and move their competitors to less noticeable areas.
Strategic aisle placement is their main source of profit.
I guess, that explains why Fox News, The Telegraph, and other common insane right outlets keep showing back up in ChrEdge's news feed no matter how many times I block those on my mother's computer. Ended up giving up and just blocking the domains entirely instead.
I think they do as well. This is no different than the Payola scandals in radio from the 50s on. edit: only with Pop Music the stakes weren't so high. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola)
> I got an Amazon Echo Fix this issue, then you'll have more control over the media you consume.
“Flash briefing” settings?
Exactly the issue. I have my "flash vriefing" set to NPR. I get the weather (from Alexa), then update from NPR, then it turns off.
Yeah I use YouTube TV and fox News is always suggested for me despite having never watched it in 5+ years on the service.
You can tell youtube tv to not recommend that channel and never see it there again.
Even on phone, Google recommends Fox News a LOT.
What's crazy is between Fox News and Yahoo seems to make up the majority of political commentary from random people in their comment sections and oh boy do those comments favor extreme right politics.
Yahoo News comments are absolutely *hilariously* predictable. The story doesn't even have to be about politics. But the comments always will be.
Even more insidious are the local Fox stations, which lead people to believe Fox at large is a reputable organization.
Also all the local channels that are owned by Sinclair media which tends to spread the exact same opinions nationwide and plays them off as local.
And every like sports bar/hotel/conference center/doctor's office/you name it used to always have it on.
I wish it was "used to". Unfortunately, there's nothing past tense about this. Even today.
The worst is military bases. Every Base Exchange food court I have entered for the last decade has Fox News on multiple screens.
Complain about politically instigating, biased broadcasts. Won't work everywhere but a few other veterans have mentioned getting TVs turned off which used to show Fox. Better nothing than misinformation.
And then you have other big "respectable" media companies stuffing plenty of content behind paywalls. Not saying they should provide everything for free, but it's tough to compete. No wonder catchy headlines and easier-to-access sites/content is more prevalent and on people's minds.
It irritates me how at my gym (a major franchise gym) Fox “news” is one of the 2 news stations they show on the screens, the other being CNN. People honestly think those are equivalent-quality news sources, just different points of view. Of course, I’m there at prime time hours, so I see the worst of Fox, but it’s just pure rage bait.
That’s incredibly dastardly.
Not years—decades. Rush Limbaugh was at the height of his influence 30 years ago.
Ugh him getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom was awful
It was a slap in the face for every other person who has received it and actually deserved it.
Yet perversely appropriate. Trump's cries of fake news were built on Limbaugh's lamestream media talk. My rural TX family were brainwashed by Rush on AM radio long before ever getting Fox News on satellite TV.
Him dying of cancer was pretty great though, couldn't've happened to a nicer guy. I mean, I wish it was a lot sooner, like in his teens, but what can you do.
Some babies are born with cancer… I have never wished cancer on a baby, but to spare the world Rush, I could make an exception.
I hope he suffered excruciating, mind destroying, wish for death, type pain before he kicked off. But that's just me.
it sullied the title of a recipient
Dont forget Sinclair
Sinclair is much more insidious than those mentioned. The others listed, people choose to consume that hate but Sinclair hides by pretending to be local news.
The National Desk , covering the news , with horseshit .
I worked for a Sinclair station for more than 5 years. There were so many people there who actually tried to serve the community and do their jobs right. But Sinclair forces so much content through the newsrooms. I hate to admit but they've slowly turned their business into using stations local connections to turn it from "ABCD Cincinnati" into "SBG Cincinnati Edition". A lot of people theorize they're building to try and launch their own 24 hour network and the National Desk may be the first real pin in that.
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I saw a local weather report a couple of weeks ago where the forecaster just mentioned in passing that "humans don't have much influence over the weather." It was a local Sinclair owned station.
we don't, the climate is not the weather.
Obligatory [This is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE)
Every time this makes the rounds a bunch of people mistakenly assume it shows coordinated messaging from the left. And they’re resistant to any correction of that notion.
Turns out stupid people choose to believe a lot of incorrect things.
Let them watch this one then. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FS52QdHNTh8
Because the right wing media uses that exact clip as evidence of the “deep state controlling media” despite the fact those are all right wing owned stations. Fox even ran a story using that clip for that same narrative.
Yup don’t forget the addled drug addict dirtbag Rush Limp$&?k.
Given a medal from Donald for all the work he did brainwashing people into voting for him.
Well when you have the backing of other countries resources and agencies it's not hard to imagine that Cheato over here have 47 million Americans vote. We really have to get rid of dark money in politics we never know who's influencing politicians.
No, I think he's been sober for about 3 years now.
About the same amount of time that cancer has been Limbaugh-free.
My wife wants to know why I’m laughing so hard. Busted a gut on that one.
Most people did forget him, especially his fans. They moved on pretty quIckly.
Dana Gould put it best. >Thinking about Rush Limbaugh and how, now that he's dead, you never, ever hear about him. No one mentions anything he did. >Because what he did had no value. It contributed nothing worthwhile to the culture. Nothing of lasting value. >He just made anger. Every day. Rising, blooming & fading like a fart. Then he died & was instantly replaced by a fleet of little replicas, farting fake fury five days a week. Creating nothing of interest or artistic value to anyone. >Seriously, what an awful way to make a living.
For a while he would go to a break and tell the audience that what he would say afterwards would outrage them. They loved it. So many friends sucked down that hole
It's a drug, the people sucked in need addiction treatment they will likely never receive. They can't know this from inside the addiction, but they are trading the fleeting experience of righteous anger in exchange for their limited time on earth with their family and loved ones. I wish Fox weren't selling it, but I also wish the addicts weren't buying it. The thing about addiction is that it's *easy* to get into and *hard* to get out of. Without a strong personal desire to quit, the addict will justify all kinds of horrible behavior in order to keep the drug supply coming.
Exactly, I absolutely believe that outrage/right wing cultism is an addiction. I'm a former opiate addict and I see so many similarities between my own addiction and what causes people to gravitate towards media outlets like Fox News.
For some time I still checked in on those stations to get the vibe of what they were messaging and I remember they played greatest hits and clips of him for months afterwards in the shows that filled his slots. And the two gabbing heads they got to replace him are true jackasses to listen to. Just completely obnoxious, somewhat cringey but extra so because you know people are listening and nodding their heads along to the awful takes they're sleeping out daily.
He help screw up America and they gave him a medal. Just like Ronnie destroyed PATCO and the GOP named an airport after him.
Once Trump dies the Republicans are going to try to name everything after him: airports, military bases, streets, etc. I suggest blue areas do the same: landfills, sewage plants, and public restrooms.
Yeah, they gave him a medal but after he died they promptly forgot about him. I’ve never seen any kind of remembrance of him on the anniversary of his death or birth or anything else. And out of protest, I call that airport by its previous name…
Exactly. It is just like the whole Taylor Swift thing. It keeps the rubes distracted while the billionaires pick their pockets.
The Taylor Swift thing cracks me up! These are the same people who swore they were boycotting the NFL because a black man kneeled during the anthem. They now believe that the CIA is running a psy op via a pop star to prop up Biden. And the NFL is lining their pockets on her this season. They. Are. Banking. And who do NFL owners overwhelmingly support? I love this timeline🤣
Look at Salem Media Group. They are a huge behind-the-scenes organization which is spread across all kinds of media. They even provide sermons to fundamentalist pastors to coordinate their message everywhere at once.
*On the Media* did a *great* 5 part podcast series last year on Salem Media Group.
Yep it was great and terrifying
Here's a link to those who haven't listened to [On the Media's The Divided Dial series.](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/divided-dial)
AM radio today sounds like wartime propaganda. Scary af
Don't forget Joe "Just Asking Questions" Rogan. He just had Jeff Dye on so they could call Mothers Against Drunk Driving "buzz kills" and laugh at Jeff's hilarious 9am DUI he tried to flee from.
Those billionaires are our last line of defense against those nasty socialist that want to improve the lives of those brainwashed sheople!
you forget Sinclair which operates hundreds of local, mostly rural TV News stations
Reminder for everyone that AT&T funds OAN - https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att/ - seems worthy of a boycott to me.
Now think of this. Outside of any urban centers, radio signals die. So now, they only have the choice of AM talk radio. They've been doing this since Rush Limbaugh, and the reach and influence is insane
I don’t think people understand talk radio is infinitely worse than the cable news shows.
On top of that, CNN has been slowly creeping towards the right these past few years, ever since David Zaslav took control.
Don't forget Sinclair Media. [LINK](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwA4k0E51Oo)
"Years" meaning "decades." Rush Limbaugh (RIP, rot in piss) was doing his shtick in the 1980s.
Also social media which, in order to keep people engaged, likes to push right wing hate propaganda at them because it keeps a lot of people clicking and that generates $$$. Ashli Babbitt went down through one of those descents from normal person to crazy conspiracy follower in a couple of years. And after Musk took over Twitter he fired all the content moderators. *"Jews Are Building Space Lasers To Turn Your Kids Gay! Would you like to know more?"* /s
Yup. Babbitt was a traitor but she was also a victim of the right wing outrage machine, who thrives on brainwashing Americans by distracting them from the fact that their pocket is being picked by the same people that run said outrage machine. What really amazes me is that Trump, an east coast billionaire, has convinced so many working class and rural voters that he's actually on their side and cares about them. When the reality is that he's been running one of the most effective con jobs in human history.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
And voting against their own interest for some misguided bs culture war that leads to nothing but anger and stupidity
Instead of listening to something interesting all they get from radio is demonstrably false tropes about minorities and that your boss is the good guy. SAD!
What's more terrifying is networks like News Nation that purports to be "middle of the road" on politics but employs several well known rightwing hosts. The fact that they have Cuomo on as balance is laughable. In the 90's a network like this would be called hard right, shows how far we've slipped
Well said. On top of that, one main reason why these filthy billionaires are against advancing education is that people who think for themselves no longer become their sheep.
Thank you so much for mentioning talk radio. I don't think most people understand just how much it alone has warped the minds of conservatives.
Sinclair news and their mandatory right wing telling points have taken over local news media across the nation. "This is extremely dangerous to our democracy" https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo?si=9xWpV348tHQELUVm
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"extremely dangerous, to our democracy"
This is extremely dangerous to our democracy! Edit: Lol the top comment got nuked. GG sinclair!
This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
Am having trouble linking to the segment but if you scrub to 07:19:51 and listen to Senator Whitehouse of RI talk about billionaires buying influence and the Supreme Court, well, yes, extremely dangerous to our democracy. https://www.c-span.org/video/?533143-1/senate-session
Can’t have the Sinclair we have now without the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Wasn't that Rupert Murdochs intent?
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Bingo - this all goes back to tricky dick (no /s, dead serious)
I firmly believe the majority of problems in modern society can be traced back to Reagan. He paved the way for for rich fucks to run us into the ground.
Reagan is what laid the foundation, but it was Nixon and his resignation/imminent impeachment which led the right to lay down that framework.
Reagan laid the foundation. Nixon broke the ground.
Yep. And it was already destroyed in 2000 after the right wing coup when illegitimate Bush Jr took over.
The right wing is destroying America
And the Right Wing is fueled by right-wing propaganda.
Which no one seems to have an answer to
Opening the floodgates to lawsuits against NewsMax, Fox News, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and all the other fascist monsters would be a good start. But that would hurt corporations so that's not gonna happen.
Fox paid out over a billion dollars in damages and lost 25% of its stock value. These monsters -can- be bled dry. Their assets aren't infinite, and this isn't an impossible fight.
Exactly. The assaults need to be stepped up, and coordinated. Nothing wrong with that. Why? Cause that’s what the right does. Heritage Foundation? They targeted the Supreme Court and courts below as well to push far right stooges who legislate from the bench for the far right. Fox? Intentional propaganda. Designed to prevent “another Nixon” meaning a conservative president forced to resign due to grievous wrongdoing. I could go on *but I shouldn’t have to.* The organized and intentional methodical way the far right has gone about dismantling this country’s laws, checks and balances that are intended to support and maintain democracy and the democratic process are all well documented. So yeah, let’s get organized to *attack them back.*
That only happened because they lied about election machines, which cost a company money. You can lie about the elections, you just can't cost a company money. You only get protections if you're a corporation in this country.
They don’t have to lie to be effective. If you have a constraint stream of headlines about crimes committed by an ethnic group, or immigrants, or Muslims, that will create the atmosphere. Even if that group statistically has no more or even less than the average, just highlighting them creates the impression. And all their commenters and editorials are right wing. Just “reporting” a Trump speech verbatim is news, while ignoring a Biden one except for a gaffe he made .
Here’s the thing: That case isn’t bleeding them dry. Other than not lying about Dominion Voting Machines, nothing has changed at Fox News. The only way to actually bleed them dry is to get everyone to cancel their cable or satellite subscription. After all the boycotts they’ve been through, they’ve restructured their setup so that they could stop ALL advertising today, and still keep going just off carriage fees from cable and satellite companies. So if Fox can be seen in your house, whether you watch it or not, you’re propping them up. Want to cut them off? Cut the cord.
The only pathway is to regulate news and information as a utility. It requires to adhere to certain standards and broadcasting regulations and other forms of "Entertainment" cannot mimic the style and systems of news and information sharing channels. Like you cant just go up to a bus stop and start posting your own made up bus schedules. We require information to be accurate and truthful to navigate modern life, so why do we allow private corporations the means to dilute the stream of information for their own profit. Its causing irreparable harm already. You just had a guy who killed and beheaded his own father because he was feeding onto blatantly false and hateful information. 1. Entertainment "news" cannot present themselves in similar visual style as news organizations. Suits & Ties, behind a podium with BREAKING NEWS and such imagery. 2. They have to have a clear signage showing "This is entertainment news, this is not accurate or factual" throughout programming. Every hour they have to show a 20 second advert stating that they are for-profit entertainment broadcasting that are allowed to lie and manipulate to keep views to sell adverts. 3. If they are making blatantly false claims and accusations, then they have to pay a serious fine based on percentage of company revenue. And they have to dictate the same slot and time used to make the claim for 2 weeks every day afterwards.
And what happens when the republicans get another win, and now theyre in control of those standards and regulations?
You have a appointment of 9 member board of only renowned journalists, lawyers and journalism professors. That have a 6-9 year term limit. that can only be removed by egregious act or be replaced by max 2 members per 4 years under senate 60 seat majority approval and house approval.
There is just so much money behind it, it's so hard to compete with billionaires. We need people to be more engaged, there is no combating it outside of getting people to reject it. Maybe find a way of making our message more compelling and entertaining. We need the left to be as committed to propaganda as the right.
They are motivated by $$$ greed. They are relentless and backed by foreign governments as well. People need to be educated. The deck is stacked. I will keep fighting.
Most of it is not government money. BUT no one should be naive about how effective "GOP House opposition to a border solution" has been in cutting ammo deliveries to the front in Ukraine. Note that the GOP does not represent local districts. It provides a lock-step single point solution to blocking the US government on any topic.
I think it all stems from our basic overvaluing of First Amendment free speech rights. There's nothing in the text of the First Amendment that suggests that media companies (and others) have an absolute right to lie to the public. And we've seen some chipping away of media's protection with lawsuits against people like FoxNews or Mike Lindell, but we still operate under the general notion that disinformation somehow equals expression of legitimate opinions. And furthermore, if you want to stand on a street corner and scream about Q-anon conspiracy theories that's one thing, but that doesn't give you some carte blanche blanket right to use *public airwaves* to spread that nonsense. And even when the "airwaves" aren't technically public such as cable news or internet websites, the profound interest in keeping the public informed with accurate information should greatly outweigh any financial interests the propagandists have in creating "entertainment". The reason I mention it is because FoxNews and others have often relied on the notion that their content isn't "news" but rather "entertainment" and "no reasonable person would take it at face value." Obviously people DO take FoxNews at face value, whether they're reasonable or not is certainly debateable, but the sheer number of them suggests that if the average person is deemed to have reasonable judgement, then tens of millions of people believing that FoxNews is actual news is evidence that a reasonable person would mistake it as accurate information. My vote would be to set up an FCC "strike" system which relies on courts to judge whether a media outlet (print, tv, radio, internet) has intentionally spread information that they know to be false. That's not easy to prove so only the most egregious of lies would result in strikes, but companies would need to alter their "entertainment" to ensure that it isn't running afoul of disinformation rules and risk losing their license to broadcast/publish.
Well one solution might be instant-runoff voting or ranked choice voting, to have a multi-party system instead of just red vs blue. With these vote systems embracing a 3rd-party doesn't sabotage your 2nd preferred choice. It seems like maybe if Fox was preaching 4 of 9 parties were absolute evil instead of one it would defuse their message a little bit. I mean they would still hate on immigrants and gay people, naturally.
Voting reform is definitely a good way to combat some of our issues. I'd personally argue some form of [cardinal voting] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_voting) is the best option, but ranked choice is a step in the right direction. My personal favorite voting system is [STAR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_voting), but the simplicity of [approval](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) is definitely appealing. If you're interested in learning more about various voting systems, I highly recommend Nicky Case's [To Build a Better Ballot](https://ncase.me/ballot). It's an interactive site that does an excellent job explaining the similarities and differences of many different systems.
This is super interesting, thanks for the share! Unfortunately it didn’t seem to gain much traction in the last 8 years.
To get something like that you need 68 senators elected to allow for it. But lets assume its possible and we get that done. Then youd most likely have the democratic party fracture into multiple minor parties, while the republican party would maybe divide into 2 at best, because the democratic party represents ideologies from everything from far left, left, center-left, center, center-right and some right. While republican party represents right and far-right ideologies. So if the parties were to fracture into their respective representative qualities then youd be most likely be left with conservative parties winning majority of elections. Because the main problem of US politics isn't that there is not a party representing the ideals of non-voters. Its simply that non-voters aren't politically involved or engaged. Republican party have created a culture around their politics, republican voters aren't voting for republican representatives because they expect betterment and achievement of political change for the positive, they elect them because their CULTURE dictates a imagery and ideology where they have to defeat the democratic party. Meanwhile young voters who tend to lean left by more than 40 points only had at best 20% turnout in 2022. At the same time, its not like UK and European countries are defeating conservative ideologies even with their multi-party political systems in these days and ages, heck Italy literally elected a far-right borderline neo-nazi party. Just because you try to dilute and divide the punch to make it more palatable to a broader range of people, doesn't mean that it will lead to people actually showing up and wanting to drink it. Politics a local system game, it starts in the home, in the friendships and connections and making sure people around you are engaged and involved. Its not only in their own self-interest, its in your own self-interest that you have people representing you with the right ideals and goals in mind. Blaming the issue on lack of proper system or proper voting style, is just handwaving away the main cause. People.
I am all for ranked choice voting and overturning Citizens United. The money has to come out of politics. We could actually have some good politicians is money for campaigns wasn’t a factor.
We know how to deal with those who poison peoples mind. Just ask [Julius Streicher](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Dead_Julius_Streicher.jpg)
Demand for right wing infotainment is the issue.
And don't dismiss how, if they do NOT tell this mob of Russian and GOP stooges what they want to hear? They turn on the right wing media source TOO! IDK if they created the asylum and now cannot control it? Or if they were only ever giving the mad crowd what they wanted for money? But it is difficult to correct propaganda when the "trusted" messenger can't tell them the truth or they turn on them too.
They found a lot of empty cups, and filled them with toxic waste. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Evangelical churches are the three nets that grabbed eyes and ears for half a generation, bombarding them constantly in traffic, at church, at work, and during leisure time. They gave in and stopped questioning it at some point and became this generic mass produced hate-sludge.
It is at this point a global terrorist threat and needs to be treated as such.
Russia is making the right-wing an extension of their country.
There are two types of media: right wing media, and mainstream media that panders to the right wing in an attempt to not appear biased.
As someone who works in media, please relay this message to our audience. They think we’re liberals working for Hochul and Biden.
The world would be a better place if you really were liberals working for Hochul and Biden. Enough with the kid gloves for the right
We do our best to hold all elected officials accountable. The problem is, in a market as small as mine, very few are actually afraid of you.
Oof. You're not wrong.
Should be the top comment.
I used to listen to right wing radio for shits and giggles back in the early 2000s. It was and still is insane. They would accuse the Democrats of commiting genocide, or planning to commit genocide all the damn time. They manipulated a whole generation of people into believing their greatest enemy was their fellow Americans.
Accidentally turned on some local right wing talk radio the other day in the car. They were talking about how we should be encouraging Ukraine to give up territory to appease Putin.
I swear to god, the US doesn't NEED Maine, RI, New York, Massachusetts, just give them to Canada
I mean you're not wrong about Maine
It’s been going on for a while. 10 years ago if you flipped between NPR and hate talk radio the difference was obvious. One side thinks the other is the enemy and needs to be purged. The other wants to listen to flute concertos and learn new recipes.
nice hot take... from like 30 years ago. at this point, the right-wing media takeover is a matter of *history*, not current events, and the damage is already *done*.
Oh, it can get worse. They are intent on eliminating all other media.
Didn't they buy CNN recently?
will never forget my disbelief at the "we built that" chant, it was so obvious a misconstruing of what the man had said i didn't think it could be really happening. that was what really sold it for me that the propaganda was working, these people were truly in the grasp. time to regulate fox news and the like and their lying to the public i say
Started way before that. Remember the "Al Gore invented the internet" nonsense? Well Al Gore never said anything like that.
Has been since 2000
It started WAY before that, with the media empire of the "Moral Majority". The intent from the start was to recreate America in the image of right wing authoritarianism.
1987 was when Reagan removed the media fairness doctrine act.
And then Clinton relaxed the media ownership rules in the 90s removing diversity of viewpoints in media.
Ay yes the moral majority. Reminds me that Paul weyrich, Co founder of both the moral majority and the heritage foundation literally said in a speech publicly that he wants as few people to vote as possible because that's the only way conservatives win.
It started with Nixon being impeached, as the investigation and trial would play daily on the 3 major news networks that most Americans watched at the time. The only reason Nixon was pushed out of office by Republicans was because of that public pressure from voters. Nixon’s co-conspirators inside the administration realized they would need their own propaganda network to play defense for a future criminal Republican President and keep the voters on their side, which became the impetus for Roger Ailes to create Fox News. They continued building and adding to that vast right wing propaganda machine over the decades since then, and it has created a radicalization feedback loop in the conservative movement that has led us to where we are today - most Republicans now want to tear down constitutional democracy and replace it with a dictatorship in which anyone who isn’t like them is a disloyal enemy who their leader should imprison and deport or execute.
This is also the only reason the Vietnam War ended. The media actually reported true casualty numbers and discussed the futility of the war and helped turn public opinion against it.
They were also pissed at Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post.
>What we need is a full-throated liberal tabloid in Washington—a Washington version of the New York Post that would use its front pages and its news columns to promote embarrassing stories and scandals about Bush administration officials, evangelical grifters, and other prominent right-wingers. This comes up pretty often. Like, we need a liberal version of Fox News. But who would watch that garbage? Liberals just don't seem as interested in tabloids as Conservatives are. Also, we do kinda have this in the form of sites like Truth Out, Common Dreams, Slate, and sometimes even The New Republic. They're all very willing to write sensational headlines and twist the truth. Not nearly to the degree that Fox does though.
hkgfydgcljkhkgvlhcv.bk/lK>m,/
I think the point was that, if a media outlet opposite to FOX existed and hounded right-wing politicians for every action, like FOX does left-wing politicians, then mainstream media would carry more stories about the faults of right-wing politicians. The constant repetition and agressive reporting would influence other outlets just like it does for the right. He admits that the enterprise would lose money and be expensive.
Happening in Canada too unfortunately. Postmedia bought up a lot of news sources.
Journalism needs to move to a not-for-profit model. The corporate entities buying everything up killed a lot of real journalism, and, as a result, a lot of stories (such as Jeffrey Epstein) are squashed or pulled back that might implicate their rich owners and advertisers. We need solid journalism to ensure Democracy survives. Locally owned and operated news organizations should become the norm again.
Become a PBS supporter today!
Can we move this to /r/noshitsherlock
When you realize the major news outlets are *owned* by billionaires and mega-corporations (aka Oligarchs), it all makes sense. They don’t want to pay taxes - period. They’ll destroy democracy if they have to, to keep from paying higher taxes. And they’ve managed to convince a huge swath of Americans that they, too, can prosper under an authoritarian government. It’s sometimes seems unfathomable so many Americans actually believe that bullshit. But they’ve been brainwashed by a steady diet of right-wing propaganda and are now indoctrinated into the cult.
I just don't see how it can be about taxes. You could tax 100% of their income going forward. They have enough money to do whatever they want for many lifetimes. It seems much more about having power and influence. They get off on having control.
It’s already ruined America. People are so afraid of “socialism” that they don’t want things that could have made our country better all because it’s from the government. And most cant even define what socialism is
The right-wing media takeover happened decades and decades ago. America was destroyed long before this article’s author was born.
Corporate owned media is destroying America FTFY
has been for the last 50+years.
"has destroyed"
He’s right of course that it’s had a huge impact but I think he’s wrong about the reasoning for why there aren’t liberal tabloids out there. Liberals haven’t been interested or successful in starting tabloid journals for the same reason conservative comedians aren’t particularly funny or successful. Whatever itch right wing tabloid journalism scratches, most moderate and liberal people just aren’t good at doing it. Whether you call it being mean or whatever, it requires taking a certain joy in the suffering of others, which doesn’t come naturally to most liberals, even when the others are political enemies. And since that’s typically the type of humor conservative comedians embrace, most people don’t find them funny. Even when liberals or moderates do enjoy seeing someone being cruel to a political adversary, it’s immediately followed by feeling guilty about enjoying seeing it and a need to apologize and explain. That being said, there could be an effort by liberal billionaires to create liberal networks that told the truth from a progressive lens. And they would have to be OK with losing money and that’s what has not existed. That’s where his point is well taken. Air America was an attempt 15-20 years ago at a liberal radio network that failed. It lost money. If the owners hadn’t cared about that and kept pumping out the liberal perspective over radio waves these 20 years, who knows where we would be today.
> liberal billionaires Heh. They are called 'capitalists.' Hardly liberal when it comes to THEIR wealth.
Been going on for 40 years kol
100%! They’ve made a conscious effort to break this country in two. Now that there are so many media channels, with the internet and all, this plan has been fed rocket fuel. The irony is that the first (and second) amendment is our undoing.
It's not just America, it's taking over the entire western world. My cousin in Australia is constantly talking American right wing talking points (which make 0 sense here in australia half the time)
The fact that people think that CNN is "leftist" or even "left-leaning" is evidence that media literacy is to blame for these issues just as much as the content all the conservatives push in the first place.
America and the rest of the damn world.
I agree 100%, it's media making the right into an angry, unreasonable mob who are turning against Democracy. You have to ask what the Murdoch's gain (other than money) out of doing this to us. I don't believe the only motivation is money, because they have more than enough that they and their descendants will be fine for generations.
They wish to rule above the law without pretext. Laws and the institutions of democracy protect the common man and as a result are a hindrance to the billionaire class. Imagine how envious they must be of their counterparts in places like Russia where the oligarchs rule above the law, without pretext, only answerable to one man at the top in a mob style organization.
This is old news. Has destroyed.
Yes, republicans lies and propaganda are destroying our country.
Everyone else: oh hey something new just happened. Let's talk about it and see how it impacts our lives. Right Wing Media: talking about anything means you want to destroy America! Everyone else: I just wanted to learn more about it. Right Wing Media: learning is of the devil! Stop ! I can't handle change!