• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    For someone who grew up with 4 TV stations, this shit blows my mind. Back in the day, journalists hunted politicians for sport and they went absolutely nuts after Watergate. The rich have bought up all of our major communication systems.

    • Leon@pawb.social
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      8 days ago

      Less than thirty years ago, Bill Clinton got impeached for among other things, perjury and abuse of power. Trump was elected having openly said “grab them by the pussy”, mocked a reporter’s disability, and again despite being a convicted felon. He’s been impeached twice!

      This kind of thing just doesn’t surprise anymore. What would surprise me is if he doesn’t remain for a third term.

      • Zorque@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Technically he was impeached for being someone Republicans didn’t like, he just got caught in an obfuscation that made it easier for them to persecute him.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      I’ve long thought one of the things that led to the sorry state we’re in today was the advent of cable TV. In the days you’re talking about, three or four networks were competing for the same viewers, and none of them could afford to alienate a big hunk of people, so they all tried to at least appear objective. With cable, there were so many stations that one could go after some niche and do fine, so we got stations that barely even made a pretence of being news, rather than propaganda, and people tuned in to hear whatever confirmed their existing narratives.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 days ago

      It’s also dilution. When there were 4 stations on TV and everyone watched televised news, a story on there got a shit ton of viewership, and there could only be a handful of news stories to pay attention to. Now there’s several 24 hour news stations, all the other local stations, 100 other channels to watch besides news, streaming shows, all the news from the internet coming in at 100’s a day, and shit little Facebook and YouTube algorithms that only feed people things they’re likely to keep eyeballs glued on to the screen.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      And remember how we were told each time that it was a good thing that another billionaire had his oen Kees station? Hoe it was a good thing that each news station was bought and lost its independence?

      Its all such a great thing!

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I mean two rich guys bought almost all legacy media sources. It’s not that they were good before it’s that they’re worse now.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    Seriously! I took a screenshot of news headlines on Sunday bc I noticed this but didn’t know where to post it.

    What is this bullshit? Democrats see crime as a major issue? Which ones? Literally everybody has been pointing out Trump sending the national guard to D.C. bc of crime was complete bullshit.

    Stop helping these dictators spread propaganda and normalize a fucking military takeover!

    AP you’re not even allowed to come over to the white house anymore, what are you even doing? We thought you were cool?!

    • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      AP is no less beholden to their corporate overlords than any other corporate media, they were never cool. They just happened to be serving as the anchor for the “left” flank of traditional media’s overton window.

        • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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          8 days ago

          Trump does make things more complicated. The ruling class is not unified, there are factions within that are at odds with one another. A lot of the liberal media is loyal to a particular neoliberal faction of the ruling class that Trump is not a part of, and some have capitulated sooner / more completely than others. There was a time when Trump actually was an outsider (in relative terms) who represented a fringe minority of the ruling class.

      • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        It’s always a threat to our democracy. But then the guy who does all this in the name of democracy is also a threat to our democracy? And the playbook he’s using to destroy our democracy (project 2025) was literally written by a guy who never actually wanted a democracy even though it really, really, seems likely he helped overthrow the government and collapse the Soviet Union in the name of democracy but just created an oligarchy.

        Then he decided he wanted to overthrow our democracy in 1999 bc he realized it would never be what he wanted, and he was angry Bill Clinton didn’t actually get impeached after he got a BJ?

        Then he died in 2008, but now we just have this guy in 2025 who is the result of the 1999 plans coming to fruition. He’s unimpeachable and he’s going to be allowed to just destroy the U.S. to like make a point? I guess?

        Obviously it’s going to be making a lot of rich people richer (that’s always the point) but I can’t even keep up with what narrative is being presented anymore to keep us believing. Maybe that’s the point? Idk this is doo doo. I feel like if you’re in the CIA you must either need to dissociate 24/7, or take a lot of drugs, or be in a constant existential crisis. Or maybe some combo platter. It just seems like the narrative gets more and more convoluted with time and makes less sense.

        Obviously it’s still being used as an excuse to invade other countries, but did they ever care about democracy actually existing even in the U.S.? Or was it always just an excuse the U.S./CIA used while they got wealthy and helped other wealthy people stay wealthy?

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          Sorry, should have been clearer in my comment. Multiple news sources, across party lines, often end up running from the exact same playbook.

          Down to dozens of local newscasters across Fox, NBC, and CBS literally reading the same script verbatim in the video I linked. It’s a minute and a half mashup of all the different on air readings of the exact same script across dozens of local news channels of different organizations and political affiliations.

          That line about danger to our democracy was a direct quote from the shared script.

  • apftwb@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    This is written the same way you write propaganda as a precursor to invading countries.

    Those poor Ukrainians. We must liberate them from their Nazi government that they elected. Its in their best interest.

  • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    Every time a headline includes “Trump says” and then they just print whatever lie he’s going with that day.

    “Trump gives ________ 20 day deadline for __________” what a freaking great news article I’m sure that is.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Not a bad idea for Cards Against Humanity, actually.

      • Trump gives children with terminal cancer 20 day deadline for returning to the Holy Land

      • Trump gives teenage moms 20 day deadline for hands-on sex ed lessons.

      • Trump gives consensual sex 20 day deadline for sex.

      None of those are out of place, neither in the game nor in reality.

  • InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    They do this on a local level as well.

    It’s also suspicious which crimes they tend to talk about and focus on. 3 people died today in a car accident after someone decided to try passing in a no-passing zone. I had to ask around to find out what happened. Yet the local news is showing a report on a teenager who is in critical condition after someone shot into his bedroom window.

  • antonamo@feddit.org
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    8 days ago

    Just for assesment.: Are such numbers normal in the states? I knew that you have a gun problem and I don’t think the national guard will solve this. Just for comparison Berlin has 800 incidents a year including cases where only a gun was pointed at a victim.

    • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Its a news story because it is not typical. That being said Berlin has a homicide rate around 1 per 100k people and Chicago has a homicide rate around 21 per 100k people as of 2024. There were 573 homicides total in 2024.

      Most of these occur in a small number of chronically impoverished neighborhoods. The worst neighborhood, Austin, had 47 murders which is more than the safest 23 neighborhoods combined. 428 of those murders were black and 116 were Hispanic.

      As you can see there is a decided slant to the data that shows why the Black Lives Matter movement exists. There is more or less a permanent underclass created by racism and failed drug policy.

      https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/03/chicago-homicides-2024/

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      In Chicago, kind of, yeah. It has a huge gang violence problem. Of course, that’s a systemic issue which can’t be solved by locking people up.

  • InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    Oh, and the other thing that skins my shins with these new stations (at least in the USA)…

    The artificially and over the top cheery incandescence in their facial expressions and voices. They’re delivering horrible news about an earthquake in Turkey that killed hundreds of people, and they’ve got those perfectly bleached uber white teeth glaring through the smile they’re just managing to suppress, but they’re doing in that happy modern-distopia news voice in exactly the same tone they’d be using to announce the winning team of puppy bowl or something along those lines.