[washbrain]

Yes, all outlets are biased. It is literally impossible to have a neutral news source.

But there's a world of difference between, say, a random article on the BBC and Alex Jones saying the kids in Sandy Hook were crisis actors.

I think we can agree that there is a material difference there.

[LewisVerstappen]

> a random article on the BBC and Alex Jones saying the kids in Sandy Hook were crisis actors

A tiny fraction of people follow Alex Jones and the vast majority disagree (or have no idea who he is). I have yet to see someone who actually believes the kids in Sandy Hook were crisis actors.

The reality is that the US corporate media (literally billion dollar media companies like NY Times or WaPo) are angry about losing their monopoly on what the "truth" is.

Now, they have to compete with independent journalists publishing on Substack/YouTube (read how critical the NY Times is of Substack. It's absurd.). They're trying to get YouTube/Facebook/Twitter to censor anyone who's not "an expert", where they get to decide who counts as an expert.

So, the media is trying to push a narrative that Alex Jones is a bigger threat than he really is. They're also trying to paint all independent media as Alex Jones-type so they can maintain their monopoly on the truth.

Meanwhile, they continue to run million dollar marketing campaigns where they're trying convince everyone that they're the truth ("Democracy Dies in Darkness").

Frankly, the media did the exact same thing with Trump in 2016 (and continue to do so). Trump was a fringe character during the beginning of the RNC for the 2016 election and Jeb Bush was the frontrunner.

The media (left especially) proceeded to talk about Trump 24/7 and give him unlimited free air time (and they got a ratings bump in return). They took someone who was a fringe character and made him seem like the mainstream. The Streisand Effect kicked in and Trump immediately shot up in the polls.

Then, when Trump ended up winning, the media pretended they had 0 culpability and spun up a false narrative that the Russian interference gave Trump the victory (The Russians interfered, but their interference wasn't what swung the election, it was a laughable attempt if you read their strategies. The media talking about Trump 24/7 was what gave him the victory).

[criddell]

> I have yet to see someone who actually believes the kids in Sandy Hook were crisis actors.

Listen to the testimony given by some of the Sandy Hook families during the Alex Jones trial. It's heartbreaking.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

Thank you for stating it so clearly. If the media was not building narratives and, in effect, household recognition of some profiles around none of this would be an issue. But we have narratives, because they do sell and old media has to compete with new entrants that are not as bogged down by quaint rules that governs old media ( and that includes stream of Alex Jones ).

I do not blame just the old media though. They just responded to the reality the best way they could. There is a reason most articles are now a litany of clickbaity titles. I blame us.

[zzzeek]

> The media (left especially) proceeded to talk about Trump 24/7 and give him unlimited free air time (and they got a ratings bump in return). They took someone who was a fringe character and made him seem like the mainstream. The Streisand Effect kicked in and Trump immediately shot up in the polls.

your post is chock full of simply ridiculous claims and this one is the crowning piece. please supply *any* actual documentation for any of these made up ideas. Trump shot up in popularity because he ran in primaries, he had plenty of money to do so as well as a lot of backers (both domestic and foreign, we were to learn) all around the country and conservative voters liked his ideas (mostly the anti-immigrant rhetoric, which is the oldest song in the conservative catalog, as well as a deep well of hatred for HRC that had been developed by conservative interests for literally decades) the best, plain and simple. FOX news would have built him up ahead of time as they are a right wing propaganda outlet that most certainly did want to create a Trump candidacy, sure. however "Left wing media" or even "mainstream" media outside of FOX did not "pre-choose" Trump ahead of his popularity by any means. As he continued beating everyone in polling and later in actual primaries by crazy numbers, the (non-FOX) media appropriately noticed and reported on it, and he became the center of attention as is actually appropriate. There is absolutely nothing new about that in conservative politics (except for the novel opportunity to run against a female candidate who had been built up as a focal point of anger for 25 years).

The bigger problem with this notion that Trump was "fringe outside the mainstream" is this attempt to distance US conservatism from the deeply nativist, anti-immigrant stance of the Trump presidency. But that is exactly a core value of the conservative base, which I have personally observed for my whole life amongst the many conservatives in my large extended family as well as in the communities I live in. He is exactly what "regular" conservatives want. Trying to pin it on a "the media made us do it!" is a dangerous lie in that regard.

[Dma54rhs]

You're not wrong, but I personally would like to see the job of being a reporter like public defendant, a lawyer, judge. Sure none of those are non biased either, but at least people try to hold on to that ideal.

This seems like a lazy defense of bad reporters who turned out to become propagandists instead.

[mariodiana]

Alex Jones may indeed be a terrible person, but so what? Government has no business censoring him or anyone from making spurious claims.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Government has no business censoring him or anyone from making spurious claims

The argument is if enough people suffer Sandy Hooks and get harassed by Alex Jones type sycophants, they lose trust in freedom of speech narrowly, democracy broadly, and become more inclined to support a change of pace.

We’re seeing rising support for authoritarianism in part because our system isn’t working for some people. I’m still unsure if the solution is less democracy (to temper swinging majoritarianism) or more, but that unsureness is sort of symptomatic of the argument around not being able to trust institutions. (There are also zero authoritarian regimes in history that tolerated broad freedom of speech.)

[criddell]

Should Volkswagen be allowed to lie about their diesel engine emissions?

[beej71]

Weren't these all civil suits?

[tomjen3]

A lot more would believe the BBC article. I don't believe that the BBC would do too many direct lies, but you can get very far by selective sourcing and we know the BBC is willing to go very far on issues of omission: they never mentioned Saville being a pedo rapist, fx, probably because it would look bad for them.