If you don't chase ratings, you're not chasing viewers, and you're not having much impact on discourse. The current toxic sludge of cable news sprouted up decades after public broadcasting had been around.
Why is having an impact on discourse important? It should not be the job of any media to alter arguments, viewpoints etc... it's job is to provide the facts for people to make their own opinions. The fact that we think media should be able to shape opinion is really the main problem here. Cable news chases profits and profits come from viewership which gets us into that negative feedback loop. Take away money and a lot of problems disappear.
Why bother to exist at all (besides profiting) if nobody is changing their actions based on the reporting or programming you provide?
It's a fantasy that there was ever objective reporting, or that NPR/PBS was ever capable of producing it. All news media is propaganda and always has been. Even "liberal" outlets like NPR News spout extremely right wing, reactionary, pro-capital viewpoints while they pretend to dig deep for objective truth.
Smart political actors and media types have woken up to the fact that there isn't much value in pretending to be "fair and balanced" anymore. This is the reason why middle class people who think of themselves as centrists (meaning that they had accepted the liberal consensus which dominated popular media for decades) have begun decrying "polarization."
Moving beyond news content though, PBS also makes entertainment content. What does it mean to have a factual/objective version of /Arthur/? Do we need political officers in PBS Kids storyboarding sessions to make sure left wing concepts like sharing or feminism aren't accidentally introduced to the population?
methodin|4 years ago
ElevenLathe|4 years ago
It's a fantasy that there was ever objective reporting, or that NPR/PBS was ever capable of producing it. All news media is propaganda and always has been. Even "liberal" outlets like NPR News spout extremely right wing, reactionary, pro-capital viewpoints while they pretend to dig deep for objective truth.
Smart political actors and media types have woken up to the fact that there isn't much value in pretending to be "fair and balanced" anymore. This is the reason why middle class people who think of themselves as centrists (meaning that they had accepted the liberal consensus which dominated popular media for decades) have begun decrying "polarization."
Moving beyond news content though, PBS also makes entertainment content. What does it mean to have a factual/objective version of /Arthur/? Do we need political officers in PBS Kids storyboarding sessions to make sure left wing concepts like sharing or feminism aren't accidentally introduced to the population?